Subject: Re: Just Three Months Ago
What was the reason those considerations did not result in a go decision? Was the scope limited to fire control or the much much larger project of general water supply to citizens and agriculture?

High cost.

Brief summary of the Santa Barbara desalination plant (where I live) here:

https://www.sbck.org/our-work/....

The City of Santa Barbara constructed a desalination plant in response to the drought of 1986-1991 at a cost of $34 million, but shortly after construction was complete in 1992, the drought ended and the high cost of desalinated water made it economically inviable, so the City promptly decommissioned the plant.