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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)


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  • (Score: 2) by exaeta on Sunday January 20 2019, @11:00PM

    by exaeta (6957) on Sunday January 20 2019, @11:00PM (#789184) Homepage Journal

    Personally, I'm of the opinion that minimal temporary damage to a local habitat is acceptable when it doesn't cause permanent plant-scale damage.
    Every time we cut down trees to make room for a new subdivision, we are causing destruction of a local habitat. The damage isn't permanent, animals can move somewhere else, as long as a sufficient amount of barrier forest is in the area. But some area (where we put buildings) is no longer suitable for wildlife. I'd think of this salinification of the ocean coast the same way. Temporary localized removal of an animal habitat that would be restored if humans decided to move out.
    Granted, some fish might die, but the same can be said of each incident where you go fishing and decide to cook the catch. This is just part of nature, and unless it presents a threat to the overall ecosystem we are best not worrying too much about it.

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