For the first time in five years, the Water Education Foundation is conducting a tour of key infrastructure and other water-related sites in San Diego County.

The two-day tour May 19-20 will offer a look at a unique mix of high-tech strategies to modernize urban water systems and increase resiliency against future drought and shortages. The tour also will stop at natural water-related landscapes such as rare coastal wetlands.

A highlight will be a private tour of the new Carlsbad desalination project, the largest ocean desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere that began operating in December. This project is one of many sources of water the San Diego region is using to bolster supplies to a growing urban population in a region that previously imported most of its water supplies.

We also will visit:

• The demonstration facility for the Pure Water San Diego Program that will ultimately supply more than 1 million residents with water
• The Encina Water Pollution Control Facility, a cutting-edge biosolids recycling facility and a 3.0 megawatt cogeneration power plant
• San Vicente Dam, which recently made history as the world’s largest roller-compacted concrete dam-raising, doubling its storage capacity
• Stone Brewing to learn about the brewery’s water treatment facilities

In addition to high-tech sites, we will have lunch at Agua Hedionda Lagoon, a rare coastal wetland, learn about the region’s water history at the Mission Trails Regional Park and visit a local farm.

As always, the Foundation’s action-packed tours build in time for socializing and networking.

Register here by April 19 to get the early-bird discount on your ticket.

Please contact Tour Director Dan Scott by email here or call him at 916-444-6240 with any questions.

In other tour news, the Central Valley Tour is April 13-15 and the Bay-Delta Tour is June 15-17. Click here to see all our 2016 tours.