Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Sunday January 20 2019, @02:57AM   Printer-friendly
from the "Sea-Salt"-is-already-a-thing dept.

Desalination pours more toxic brine into the ocean than previously thought

Technology meant to help solve the world's growing water shortage is producing a salty environmental dilemma.

Desalination facilities, which extract drinkable water from the ocean, discharge around 142 billion liters of extremely salty water called brine back into the environment every day, a study finds. That waste product of the desalination process can kill marine life and detrimentally alter the planet's oceans, researchers report January 14 in Science of the Total Environment.

"On the one hand, we are trying to provide populations — particularly in dry areas — with the needed amount of good quality water. But at the same time, we are also adding an environmental concern to the process," says study coauthor Manzoor Qadir, an environmental scientist at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health in Hamilton, Canada.

I would take some salt, but it probably contains microplastics.

The state of desalination and brine production: A global outlook (DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.12.076) (DX)


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 20 2019, @03:29AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 20 2019, @03:29AM (#788890)

    First TMB now you? Ok who ordered adulthood for EF???

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +2  
       Interesting=1, Touché=1, Total=2
    Extra 'Touché' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday January 20 2019, @03:40AM (1 child)

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Sunday January 20 2019, @03:40AM (#788893) Homepage

    I am a friendly to all of you. The rest of you just didn't get it yet.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 20 2019, @06:55AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 20 2019, @06:55AM (#788951)

      With friends like these..