The OceanSpring barge-based floating desal plant is scalable from 500 to approximately 3,000 AFY, depending on the barge size which may range from approximately 150 feet to 400 feet.  The floating plant is anchored just outside the coastal closure depth in approximately 60 feet of water and approximately 5,000 to 7,000 feet offshore. 

A single permeate pipeline consisting of high-density polyethylene is installed in a horizontal directionally drilled bore from a point onshore to the bore’s designed seafloor exit point offshore underneath the floating barge.  Permeate pipeline dimensions will vary depending on the capabilities of a given configuration.  Multiple barge-based plants may be clustered around a single permeate pipeline seafloor termination and connected to the pipeline via a small seafloor manifold.

The seawater intakes of the barge-based desal plant will draw no more than approximately 5.4 MGD (based on 3,000 AFY maximum capability) per individual barge-based plant.  All seawater will be filtered through proven rotating wedge wire screens mounted on the bottom of the barge to significantly reduce impacts to marine life.

Brine will be discharged from each barge-based plant using diffuser piping compliant with the specifications of a third-party diffusion study and mounted on the bottom of the barge to provide maximum diffusion as the heavier brine water drifts down to the seafloor through the water column.

Impacts to the seafloor will be limited to the barge mooring system’s four anchors and the seafloor exit point of the horizontal directionally drilled permeate pipeline.  These components will impact less than 7,900 square feet of the seafloor (slightly more than a 1/5 of an acre).