Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by takyon on Sunday April 12 2015, @07:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the salty-savior dept.

Justin Gillis writes in the NYT that as drought strikes California, residents "can't help but notice the substantial reservoir of untapped water lapping at their shores — 187 quintillion gallons of it, more or less, shimmering invitingly in the sun."

Once dismissed as too expensive and harmful to the environment, desalination is getting a second look. [...] A $1 billion desalination plant to supply booming San Diego County is under construction and due to open as early as November, providing a major test of whether California cities will be able to resort to the ocean to solve their water woes. [...] "It was not an easy decision to build this plant," says Mark Weston, chairman of the agency that supplies water to towns in San Diego County. "But it is turning out to be a spectacular choice. What we thought was on the expensive side 10 years ago is now affordable."

Carlsbad's product will sell for around $2,000 per acre-foot (the amount used by two five-person U.S. households per year), which is 80 percent more than what the county pays for treated water from outside the area. Water bills already average about $75 a month and the new plant will drive them up by $5 or so to secure a new supply equal to about 7 or 8 percent of the county's water consumption.

Critics say the plant will use a huge amount of electricity, increasing the carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming, which further strains water supplies. And local environmental groups, which have fought the plant, fear a substantial impact on sea life. "There is just a lot more that can be done on both the conservation side and the water-recycling side before you get to [desalination]," says Rick Wilson, coastal management coordinator with the environmental group Surfrider Foundation. "We feel, in a lot of cases, that we haven't really explored all of those options."

 
This discussion has been archived.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) by Leebert on Monday April 13 2015, @02:37AM

    by Leebert (3511) on Monday April 13 2015, @02:37AM (#169519)

    There are much better and less costly technologies being developed.

    Can you elaborate a bit?

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Monday April 13 2015, @03:48AM

    by captain normal (2205) on Monday April 13 2015, @03:48AM (#169535)
    --
    When life isn't going right, go left.
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Monday April 13 2015, @05:44AM

      by frojack (1554) on Monday April 13 2015, @05:44AM (#169555) Journal

      Sorry, Its still strictly in the world of "doesn't work." At least not for seawater desalination. Your own link says as much.
      And, it has EVERY SINGLE DRAWBACK that you mentioned above for regular RO plants.

      RO is proven technology, used in countries all over the world. Its well understood.

      Further Solar powered small RO plants are off the shelf [dwc-water.com] products.
      Large scale Solar RO [hitachi.com] plants are also well established.

      On top of that, you twisted my words. I said the pumping was free by using solar power. I didn't say the entire plant was free, or never needed maintenance.

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.