The Marin Municipal Water District is considering leasing three desalination plants to augment its dwindling water supply, with reservoir levels so low right now, they might dry up by next summer.
But the district faces an unlikely competitor for the water sources – the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia wants the very same plants.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants to buy the three plants for an otherworldly project he announced this past January.
Salman is attempting to build a city of the future in the middle of the desert, a linear city with no cars, roads or carbon emissions, according to reporting by Bloomberg. The 106-mile development is called "The Line" and will be part of the $500 billion Neom project, a plan to diversify the country’s economy beyond oil.
If Salman manages to buy the plants out from under Marin, the county would be in dire straits.
"They would provide up to 5.5 million gallons of water per day," said Marin Municipal Water District spokesperson Emma Detwiler.
And the Crown Prince isn’t the only interested party. "The Crown Prince was an example of one high-profile customer that’s seeking out similar kinds of desalination plants," she said.
The district hopes to find some plants elsewhere, unless the prince decides he doesn’t want them after all. There are no diplomatic negotiations between the two parties right now.
Marin is also considering constructing a 7-mile-long pipeline across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge to pump in water from ranchers from the Central Valley.
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