SALINAS, Calif. -- Members of the Florida-based Water Standard Company on Tuesday presented a proposal to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors to build a floating desalination plant.

The facility would be located miles off shore and would be the first of its kind in the world.

For nearly 100 years, ships have been using desalination technology to create drinkable water, and the Water Standard Company is proposing using that technology on a mass scale.

The company has created plans to retrofit a giant ship with desalination technology and stick it miles off shore. The ship would then send purified water back to shore on tugboats capable of carrying 6 million gallons a load.

The proposed facility would be able to provide up to 200 million gallons of fresh water a day at about the cost of Monterey County's currently proposed desalination plant.