As a person who has run through this particular loop once with local politics (Sunnyvale's northern border is the SF Bay which has former Morton Salt ponds in it) what I ran into was two things, one that there wasn't a cost effective power solution for just desalination, and two, the players don't care about water to individuals (drinking water and what not) because there is absolutely no risk whatsoever in the bay area of not having "enough" of it. The political block that kills it is a combination of local pop saying "we don't want nuclear/cheap power in our back yard" and the folks farming the desert in the central valley saying "If you can't supply farms, why would you do it?"
My hope is that one day, small scale nuclear power (sometimes called "modular nuclear power") will make this a reality.
My hope is that one day, small scale nuclear power (sometimes called "modular nuclear power") will make this a reality.