bajajudy - 1-20-2007 at 10:14 AM
Desalinization last resort for water conservation for LoretoDesalinization last resort for water conservation for Loreto
BY TALLI NAUMAN
El Universal
Sábado 20 de enero de 2007
A lot of people outside the Gulf of California region are just beginning to take notice of the development boom threatening natural resources here in
northwest Mexico. But concerned local citizens and international agencies already are convinced that projected population growth in the desert and
fragile coastal areas is cause for preventative action.
In that vein the International Community Foundation, based just across the Mexico-U.S. border in San Diego, California, released a study this month
that can help decision makers deal with the biggest challenge of the impending influx: water conservation.
The study "Water Management Challenges in the Loreto Region," addresses the feasibility of converting seawater to fresh water in the state of Baja
California Sur. It is part of a series called Alternative Futures that is giving Loreto and other Baja Peninsula locales an opportunity to take
development planning into their own hands and even demonstrate model consensus building. In a matter of weeks, the local non-profit Grupo Ecologista
Antares will discuss the document with foreign and domestic investors, as well as researchers and other environmentalists supporting the cause of
sustainable development.
Loreto also has been drawing on lessons from the coastal tourist real estate business in Los Cabos further to the south. Loreto´s environmentalists
and city fathers are trying to avoid mistakes already made, which have caused burgeoning migration to Los Cabos from the United States, Canada and the
rest of Mexico. The incursion is stressing available water in this desert climate.
With no natural surface streams, most of the Baja Peninsula depends on underground water tables for its entire drinking and irrigation supply. The
aquifers in turn depend solely on the recharge of rainfall from hurricanes that pass a couple times a year, much of which rapidly washes away to the
sea.
The dozens of golf courses drawing visitors from abroad to luxury living in Los Cabos could soon use up the aquifers, as could the 40,000 new units of
accommodations slated for retirees and snow birds in Loreto, several hours´ drive to the north. If that number is not scaled back, it means an
eventual population of 800,000, compared to the 120,000 for which technology can make water available.
The dimensions of the ensuing disaster would be daunting. But the process would be no mystery. It was already demonstrated not too many years back
when agricultural water use in the Santo Domingo Valley just a little further north sapped the ground water and allowed sea water to fill in the
underground space left behind. The result was salinity so high that the crops would no longer grow. The same has been seen on the other side of the
Gulf of California along the coast of Sonora state, where desertification is the tragic reminder of failure to save water.
Los Cabos has opted to take the salt out of sea water as an additional source of the vital liquid. Its desalinization plans are so far advanced that a
treatment plant may begin operations as soon as a month from now. Loreto environmentalists and officials are watching carefully to see if the big
facility works, because they may want to build one themselves. They would include it in a four-point strategy that prioritizes reducing wasted water,
creating a series of small dams, and limiting the number of resort units to be built.
The study states that desalinization should be used only as a last resort, if and when other methods of meeting demands are insufficient. In that
case, the best available technology, should be used. That is reverse osmosis with an energy recovery system, because of its efficiency and lower
environmental impact.
A briny waste effluent is the main contamination concern. The conventional practice of discharging salt removed from seawater is to put it back in the
ocean. But that constitutes a significant threat to unique gulf marine species and habitat. So, land disposal and deep well injection might be
considered, but they aren´t really all that desirable either.
The Loreto Bay National Marine Park is a protected area that calls for special attention in a desalinization scheme. Countless technical studies will
be required. Costs could be high considering that brine mitigation will be necessary.
Currently, residents are reviewing the pros and cons. No decision has been made to advertise or contract a desalinization plant. The study and its use
as a point of departure for discussion assure that if desalinization is going to be done, it can be done to the best of human ability.
The choices that Loreto makes about how to safeguard its water in the face of development pressure will influence others made in Mexico and the rest
of the world, where water is of the essence. In making the choices, developers and other voters should be encouraged to put the value of conservation
ahead of the desire for quick money. Otherwise, the attraction of Loreto could be obliterated and, with it, the benefits of sustainable development.
Talli Nauman is a founder and co-director of Journalism to Raise Environmental Awareness, a project initiated with support from the John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. (talli@hughes.net)
Crusoe - 1-20-2007 at 10:32 AM
Bajajudy--- Thanks so much for such a great post. Water for sure is the key. Even here in the rainy ole P.N.W. the amount of water available for use
is the key factor in most population planning. The residents of Loreto should be able to recognize these approaches and be made aware of the
alternitives.
Sharksbaja - 1-20-2007 at 12:50 PM
This is hilarious. Groupo Nomads already has done the study.
I love the presumptious attitude. Where the heck were the reps from all the various Mexican agencies.
FORE!
Alternative ?
MrBillM - 1-20-2007 at 01:11 PM
Large-Scale Desalinization is an idea that will Never be utilized. If no other barrier existed, the monumental problem of the toxic Brine resulting
from the Desalinization would remain.
vandenberg - 1-20-2007 at 01:52 PM
If you put seawater into evaporation ponds to be able to retrieve the salt, why can the residual brine from a desalination plant be treated in the
same manner. In other words, take the sludge that a plant in Loreto would cause to Guerrero Negro, dump it in their ponds and make salt. Must be
something wrong with that reasoning of course
Somebody enlighten me.
vandenberg - 1-20-2007 at 01:54 PM
Desalinization????
Bill, tell me, that's not you??
backninedan - 1-20-2007 at 01:55 PM
This is a crock, where is all this cash going to come from?? Loreto bay? not likely, and Bill is spot on about the toxic brine disposal.
Don Alley - 1-20-2007 at 02:12 PM
Sustainable development, heh? I still think those are salesman buzz words for developers and the govt agencies (fonatur) promoting them.
Things work like this: Land gets sold, stuff gets built on it. All (except the worker barrios) will come in pretty green packages: "Sustainable" "Eco"
"Tread Lightly" "Electric Cars."
Until the water table falls and saltwater intrudes. Time to stop the party? No way! Desal plants! "Eco-friendly" ones, with sustainable eco babble
intrusion-injected enviro mitigators. No Problem! Just add a little green paint.
fishbuck - 1-20-2007 at 02:53 PM
It's already a problem in San Quintin. But it's not from developement it's from agriculture. It's been a problem in Baja for a long time. When you
pump out a lot of well water you get salt water incursion. The only real solution is to get your water from closer to the mountains where it comes
from.
We have plans for a solar desal plant in our development but right now it's cheaper to truck in water from a sweet well.
What are they sustaining?
gringorio - 1-20-2007 at 08:09 PM
Sustainable development’ is an oxymarooon. What are they sustaining? We do know that developers would like to sustain development, but they
certainly are not sustaining any kind of functional ecology. ‘Sustainable development’ is a buzzword aimed at making those who don’t look to
deeply (and want to buy something) think what they are buying is all good and cozy. They probably think they are some kind of ‘environmentalist.’
What’s key here is the word (and action) ‘development.’ With development, the first thing you lose is the land, including all the plants, animals,
seed crops of future generations, fungi, forage areas for birds mammals, reptiles, insects, nest sites, water drainage and water table re-supply.
Then, you have all those people eating that much more sea food from an already stressed marine ecosystem... Basically the ecosystem
benefits/functionality are lost to an ecosystem negative, the development itself – the development uses water, displaces, if not outright kills plants
and animals, pollinators lose their crops, continuous habitat becomes fragmented … Even if desalination was a viable alternative it would only support
the loss of the land and Sea most of us here love.
Just my two cents
gringorio 
Crusoe - 1-22-2007 at 09:20 AM
Right on Gringorio-- Thanks for such another clear prespective.
http://sun.yumasun.com/google/ysarchive25828.html
Oso - 1-22-2007 at 06:28 PM
Our excess brine will continue to affect the evolution of La Cienega de Sta. Clara, a wetland that did not exist before and may dissapear in the
future. The treehugger/envirorapist debate over that will be interesting to watch. The proposed demo will dump treated water back into the Colorado,
routinely crossed by smuggler vehicles carrying mojados and/or drugs, although alternative uses for drinking water etc. have been suggested.
Oso - 1-22-2007 at 06:37 PM
BTW, many years ago I attended an international symposium, I believe sponsored at least in part by Habitat for Humanity. There were many people from
Sweden, other Euros and African nations. It focused on helping the poor of sub-Sahara Africa. I met a very distinguished gentleman from Scotland,
I'm sorry I've forgotten his name. He spoke, not too complimentarily, of the World Bank, and other subjects. The question of desalinization arose,
to which he responded: "As a Scotsman, I would say that if you can't think of anything better to distill than water, you have my great pity."
Ah, the places and folks who gave us the good stuff to drink!!!
beercan - 1-22-2007 at 07:18 PM
Our fore fathers !!
Desalinization could work, but that is akin to world peace --all would have to pull in the same direction to make it work .
The brine could be used for mineral production ?