[Blitzer:] California is facing historic drought conditions. And to meet the growing demand for fresh water, scientists are now tapping the Pacific Ocean. Here's our Rachel Crane.
[Rachel Crane, Cnn Correspondent:] With California experiencing one of the worst droughts in the state's history, access to fresh water has never been more important or more difficult. Here in southern California, the largest desalination plant in the western hemisphere is being constructed. It will soon take water from the ocean and create 50 million gallons of fresh water a day.
[Bob Yamada, San Diego County Water Authority:] California is in a serious drought right now. And any new water supplies are important to the region.
[Peter Maclaggan, Senior Vice President Of Project Development, Poseidon Resources Corporation:] We have $190 billion economy in this region that's dependent on water. The question you need to consider is, what's the cost of not having enough water?
[Yamada:] Unlike, let's say, a water that comes from rainfall or water that comes from snow pack, we're utilizing what essentially is the world's largest reservoir, the pacific ocean.
[Crane:] The Carlsbad desalination plant will cost approximately $1 billion. The fresh water will be pumped ten miles underground to a regional delivery system, providing water to an additional 300,000 San Diego County residents. Customers, they won't know whether they're drinking desalinated water or not.
[Yamada:] That's right. It will just become part of the overall supply.
[Crane:] Through a process called reverse osmosis, the plant will convert every two gallons of sea water into one gallon of fresh water, filtering out 99.9 percent of the salt. The salt, or brine that's removed, is discharged back into the ocean. The desalination process traditionally takes a lot of energy. A plant this size would normally use as much energy in a single day as 70 homes in a year. Officials at the Carlsbad plant say theirs will use 46 percent less energy. The project is not without criticism. Environmentalists point out that desalination requires a lot of energy, and that brine discharge can negatively impact marine life.
[Unidentified Male:] We're creating more marine wetlands south of San Diego bay to create new habitat so fish can reproduce there. With respect to the brine discharge, we dilute the brine with sea water before it leaves the site.
[Crane:] The plant is expected to be completed in 2016.
[Yamada:] And everybody is ex extremely excited to see this project coming online and providing us with new water supply.
[Blitzer:] That was Rachel Crane reporting. On this day in history, June 18th, 1966, U.S. senior military commander, general William Wesmoreland requested increase of more than 100,000 troops in Vietnam. His request was granted over a three-year period and by 1969, more than 500,000 U.S. troops were in Vietnam. Vietnam is also the topic of this week's episode in "the Sixties." Watch CNN or set the DVR for tomorrow night, 9:00 p.m. eastern and pacific. That's it for me. Thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. I will be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in THE SITUATION ROOM. "NEWSROOM" with Brooke Baldwin starts now.