California regulators are likely to approve a new water desalination plant today as state officials look for solutions to ongoing water shortages, as the state struggles through its worst drought in over 1,000 years.
California regulators are likely to approve a new water desalination plant today as state officials look for solutions to ongoing water shortages, as the state struggles through its worst drought in over 1,000 years.
These plants are apparently massive energy hogs.
And the brine they dump isn't great for the area they dump it in. The better way to solve the water crisis would be to regulate water usage but we can't do that this is America.
I don't know if that's really true. A lot gets made about whatever celebrity is watering their two acre lawn, and golf courses and stuff, but I think most of Cali's water goes to irrigate the central valley, which produces 60% of the fruits and vegetables Americans eat. Consumer overuse of water is a drop in the bucket compared to agriculture.
But a lot of that water goes to grow alfalfa, which is only used as a feed crop for cattle, and almonds, which are all shipped to China. Both are incredibly water-intensive crops.
Comparatively, the amount of water that gets used for vegetables that Americans eat is much smaller.
The central valley could easily not grow almonds and grow feedstock grain for cattle that uses less water, but the state has done very little to push the ag business in this direction.
I've heard that some farmers' water rights date back to some treaty with the Spanish when they controlled CA, but have never confirmed it.
deleted by creator
its possible to make the dumping fine but they like shaving costs so they just dump it all in one spot. if there were many dumping zones itd be fine. hell if you just found a way to dump it farther from shore thatd be a huge upgrade
but no they like to take all the toxic sludge and dump it in one spot repeatedly for years and then are shocked when the environment is devastated by heavy metals and radioactive materials
Half baked thought that could definitely have issues, including that I have no idea how much of said sludge is produced: Put the sludge on container ships and have them drop it periodically across the ocean
yeah its not completely unreasonable. they might need to filter out stuff that will just coalesce in one spot no matter what but all that stuff is just naturally part of the ocean is the thing
Eventually the price for rare minerals will get high enough that processing of brine will be profitable.
Not if you care about my freedom
They use less than bitcoin tho