The Tuaspring desalination plant at S$ $0.45/m^3 in Singapore, 318,500 m^3/day. [1]. At 1233 m^3/acre foot, that's $399/acre foot. Not that useful for the central valley, because it's expensive to transport, but fine for the coastal cities.
The technology has advanced a lot recently, so older plants (or plants that were started a while ago), might be more expensive.
It's even cheaper just to recycle water, so that's another option in the toolkit for the California Cities.
Conservation has it's place, efficiency even more so, but for residential use, with a bit of planning, it's entirely reasonable for an individual to consume 200 liters/day.
The technology has advanced a lot recently, so older plants (or plants that were started a while ago), might be more expensive.
It's even cheaper just to recycle water, so that's another option in the toolkit for the California Cities.
Conservation has it's place, efficiency even more so, but for residential use, with a bit of planning, it's entirely reasonable for an individual to consume 200 liters/day.
[1] http://www.waterworld.com/articles/2013/09/singapore-s-secon...