Long before desalination plants became common and climate change intensified concerns regarding water security, one California oceanographer proposed an idea that sounded more like science fiction than engineering. In the mid-1950s, Dr John D. Isaacs of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography suggested towing a colossal Antarctic iceberg across the Pacific Ocean to Southern California. Notably, his original proposal, formulated in his 1949 classes and expanded in the February 1956 issue of Science Digest, specifically suggested utilizing the Humboldt Current to deliver the Antarctic iceberg to the coast of Southern California to supply water to Los Angeles. According to NOAA’s historical bibliography , Icebergs for Use as Freshwater, Isaacs envisioned using a fleet of powerful tugboats to haul a tabular iceberg that weighed about 8 billion tonnes to San Diego, where the berg’s freshwater could help meet the requirements of a growing population. While the project never progressed beyond the conceptual stage, it sparked decades of scientific and engineering research into whether icebergs could one day be used as freshwater reservoirs during drought-heavy situations.
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