San Diegans owe a privately-owned desalination plant over $35 million for water the company couldn’t make.

That water will only grow more expensive the longer the San Diego County Water Authority waits to buy it. And the tab came due as the region frets over ever-growing water prices and debates whether it even needs this water at all.

San Diego County Water Authority staff revealed Thursday that the region’s biggest water seller has 10,105 acre-feet of water it needs to buy from Channelside, the owner of the Carlsbad plant that de-salts ocean water to make it drinkable. (One acre-foot is a year’s supply of water for two households). The cost of that unmade water is expected to increase by about 2.5 percent per the contract.

The agency must already buy 48,000 acre-feet of water from the

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