The state is desperate for ways to alleviate its water crisis.

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.

  • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]
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    2 years ago

    Is desalination a good thing going forward? Or are there better alternatives when drinking water gets increasingly scarce?

    • spectre [he/him]
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      2 years ago

      Speaking purely from a technical perspective, if renewable energy were to scaled up somehow it probably makes sense to do it. I don't know of any downside other than the immense energy inefficiency of the process, but in this case the increasing scarcity of water is pushing the economics toward getting water no matter the cost. It's unfortunate that the environmental cost of using up all the water and then switching to desalination is not factored in under capitalism. I guess I'm just hoping that renewable energy tech/infrastructure can get in place soon enough,, the future of humanity kind of depends on it right now.

      • charly4994 [she/her, comrade/them]
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        2 years ago

        My understanding is that it has a notable environmental impact since they have to pump that saline slurry back into the ocean which then creates an uninhabitable zone for fish. If you've seen anything about brine pools at the bottom of the ocean, it's basically the same concept but instead we're just creating a brine cloud in the ocean. On a global scale it's less significant, but on a regional level it can really hurt the creatures and mess up all sorts of stuff.

        • spectre [he/him]
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          2 years ago

          I don't see why they would have to do that, but I'm sure they will do it rather than store it on land or something (which would be its own form of pollution anyway). More research needed on my part

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
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        2 years ago

        Speaking purely from a technical perspective, if renewable energy were to scaled up somehow it probably makes sense to do it. I don’t know of any downside other than the immense energy inefficiency of the process

        When you take salt water and pull out all the water, you're left with enormous amounts of salt-brine. Then you're left with the question of what to do with the new pile of waste you've created.

        Guess how the Middle East handles this problem.

        Producing one liter of fresh water produces about 1.5 liters of brine, though there are big differences in the “recovery ratio” (freshwater to brine) between plants, based on the salinity of the source feed water and desalination technology used, Jones explains.

        Every day, the nearly 16,000 desalination plants in 177 countries produce 95 million cubic meters of water and discharge 142 million cubic meters of brine.

        Over a year, that’s enough to cover Florida under a foot of brine, the authors say.

        ...

        One problem with brine dumping is that it depletes the oxygen dissolved in the receiving waters around the plant, explains Jones. “High salinity and reduced dissolved oxygen levels can have profound impacts on benthic organisms, which can translate into ecological effects observable throughout the food chain,” he says.

        The toxic chemicals used in water pre-treatment or as anti-scalants and anti-foulants in the process don’t bring benthic life joy either.

        “Development of energy-efficient, cost-effective and environmentally benign concentrate management systems is critical if desalination is to become a major part of a sustainable water future,” pointed out Pei Xu and colleagues in Environmental Engineering Science in 2013.

        • spectre [he/him]
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          2 years ago

          Glad to hear Pei Xu and colleagues have been working on it. Do we know if an environmentally friendly disposal process has been developed yet? I'm sure it won't be implemented to save cost, but at least we'd have something to fight for.

          • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
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            2 years ago

            The article lauds the Israeli approach, so... shrug. Presumably, you can dilute the brine with more sea water and diffuse it across the coastline, so you're not subjecting any single patch of sea to high levels of salinity.

    • Owl [he/him]
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      2 years ago

      It's the best way to increase the drinking water supply, but it pollutes and uses a ton of power. Using less water on non-critical things, so you don't need to increase the supply in the first place, would be much better.