Over 75 % of the US population lives along the coast. Currently, many of our coastal communities are supplied by inland fresh water resources or low-salinity coastal aquifers. Because of the limited availability of these resources and their intensive use over the years, traditional sources of water supply are nearing depletion in many parts of the country, and reliance solely on such resources is no longer sustainable in the long run. Along with enhanced water reuse and conservation, seawater and brackish desalination provides a viable alternative for securing reliable and drought-proof water supplies for coastal communities. The purpose of desalination plant intakes is to collect source seawater of adequate quantity and quality in a reliable and sustainable fashion so as to produce desalinated water cost-effectively and with minimal impact on the environment. Currently, there are two categories of widely used desalination plant source water collection facilities: open intakes and subsurface intakes (wells and infiltration galleries). Open intakes collect seawater directly from the ocean via on-shore or off-shore inlet structure and pipeline interconnecting this structure to the desalination plant. Subsurface intakes, such as vertical beach wells, horizontal wells, slant wells and infiltration galleries, tap into the saline or brackish coastal aquifer and/or the off-shore aquifer under the ocean floor.