BajaNomad

Largest Desal Plant in Western Hemisphere to be Built in Rosarito Beach

SFandH - 7-3-2016 at 09:03 AM

Found this while searching for Rosarito Beach news.

Located next to the power plant. Water for Rosarito, Tijuana, maybe San Diego.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/jun/21/baja-de...

desertcpl - 7-3-2016 at 10:51 AM


I think its great, just will be just the start

Bajahowodd - 7-3-2016 at 03:30 PM

For many years, new development in BCS has had to install desal facilities.

I am not about to diss desal, but it does require an amazing amount of electricity to perform its function. With a long time drought on the West coast, I have to wonder what the trade off is.

If you don't have enough water runoff to power your desal plant, what do you you do.

Climate change is a b-tch.

Udo - 7-3-2016 at 04:12 PM

There is another one being built for the Ensenada area.

fishbuck - 7-3-2016 at 04:26 PM

I think they pump brackish water and desal that. It the same well but from years of pumping there is saltwater incursion of the aquifer and eventually makes the water unusable without treatment.

woody with a view - 7-3-2016 at 04:29 PM

what happens to the sludge that is removed? it can't be good to pump it back into the ocean?

fishbuck - 7-3-2016 at 05:04 PM

That is the issue. It's basically toxic waste. Usually to the landfill.

ncampion - 7-3-2016 at 09:34 PM

What"sludge" are you talking about? The effluent from a modern RO plant is water that is 10% saltier than the treatment water. Hardly toxic. It does use a lot of power but it's a trade off, what do you need most.

fishbuck - 7-3-2016 at 09:59 PM

The math seems off a little.

Sea water reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination, a membrane process, has been commercially used since the early 1970s. Its first practical use was demonstrated by Sidney Loeb from University of California at Los Angeles in Coalinga, California, and Srinivasa Sourirajan of National Research council, Canada. Because no heating or phase changes are needed, energy requirements are low, around 3 kWh/m3, in comparison to other processes of desalination, but are still much higher than those required for other forms of water supply, including reverse osmosis treatment of wastewater, at 0.1 to 1 kWh/m3. Up to 50% of the seawater input can be recovered as fresh water, though lower recoveries may reduce membrane fouling and energy consumption.

woody with a view - 7-4-2016 at 05:32 AM

this is what i read: http://www.paua.de/Impacts.htm

but yeah, water is a requirement for life so whatcha gonna do?

durrelllrobert - 7-4-2016 at 08:58 AM

Quote: Originally posted by Udo  
There is another one being built for the Ensenada area.

...but ours is one tenth the size: Set to launch operations in 2017, the state’s first utility-scale ocean desalination plant is under construction in Ensenada, where residents have been subject to water rationing. The $48 million plant, a reverse-osmosis facility, would supply 5.7 million gallons daily to residents of the port city, part of a sprawling Baja California municipality that includes the San Quintin export-oriented agricultural region and the wine-producing Valle de Guadalupe.

fishbuck - 7-4-2016 at 09:25 AM

Quote: Originally posted by woody with a view  
this is what i read: http://www.paua.de/Impacts.htm

but yeah, water is a requirement for life so whatcha gonna do?


I read this too. Scary.

Mexitron - 7-4-2016 at 09:26 AM

What's powering it? Diesel? How much water could one desal with $48 million in solar panels?

David K - 7-4-2016 at 09:33 AM

Quote: Originally posted by Mexitron  
What's powering it? Diesel? How much water could one desal with $48 million in solar panels?

They should just buy the bottles of water at Costco and save the taxpayers money!! :lol:

fishbuck - 7-4-2016 at 09:36 AM

Quote: Originally posted by Mexitron  
What's powering it? Diesel? How much water could one desal with $48 million in solar panels?


Lots and lots of oil. And a huge smoke plume to go with it.

mtgoat666 - 7-4-2016 at 09:44 AM

Desal is expensive water. Takes mucho energy.
Desal water will be too expensive to irrigate landscape. More of the same: developed areas w/o vegetation. Ugly!

Thank god for aqueducts in CA.

fishbuck - 7-4-2016 at 10:00 AM

Quote: Originally posted by fishbuck  
Quote: Originally posted by Mexitron  
What's powering it? Diesel? How much water could one desal with $48 million in solar panels?


Lots and lots of oil. And a huge smoke plume to go with it.


A little research indicates that the plant was converted to gas from oil a few years back. So that helps some.

Mexitron - 7-4-2016 at 11:07 AM

Quote: Originally posted by David K  
Quote: Originally posted by Mexitron  
What's powering it? Diesel? How much water could one desal with $48 million in solar panels?

They should just buy the bottles of water at Costco and save the taxpayers money!! :lol:


LOL!

SFandH - 7-4-2016 at 11:12 AM

Quote: Originally posted by mtgoat666  
Desal is expensive water. Takes mucho energy.
Desal water will be too expensive to irrigate landscape. More of the same: developed areas w/o vegetation. Ugly!

Thank god for aqueducts in CA.



Guess you don't know about the 1 billion dollar desalination plant in Carlsbad, San Diego county.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlsbad_desalination_plant

BajaTed - 7-4-2016 at 11:22 AM

There is an existing electrical infrastructure of NG powered peaking plants located at the border and new HV transmission lines from the solar power being created in the Mojave. Plenty of power available, some day a gasoline refinery will be built in Baja to replace the ones in the Norte.

fishbuck - 7-4-2016 at 11:44 AM

Up to 100,000,000 US gallons (380,000 m3) per day of cooling water from the Encina Power Plant is taken into the desalination plant.[23] The water intake is filtered through gravel, sand, and other media to greatly reduce particulates before going through reverse osmosis filtration.[13] Half of the saltwater taken into the plant is converted into pure potable water and the rest is discharged as concentrated brine.[24]

The outflow of the plant is put into the discharge from the Encina Power Plant for dilution, for a final salt concentration about 20% higher than seawater. Most desalination plants discharge water with about 50% extra salt, which can lead to dead spots in the ocean, because the super-saline brine doesn't mix well with seawater.[13] The NRG Encina Power Station is expected to go offline in 2017, and Poseidon Water will then take over dredging responsibility for the Agua Hedionda Lagoon, taking over from NRG;[25] without dredging at the mouth of the lagoon, it would revert to being a pre-1952 mudflat.[26]


mtgoat666 - 7-4-2016 at 02:18 PM

Quote: Originally posted by SFandH  
Quote: Originally posted by mtgoat666  
Desal is expensive water. Takes mucho energy.
Desal water will be too expensive to irrigate landscape. More of the same: developed areas w/o vegetation. Ugly!

Thank god for aqueducts in CA.



Guess you don't know about the 1 billion dollar desalination plant in Carlsbad, San Diego county.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlsbad_desalination_plant


SDCWA will buy anything if you blow enough smoke and cash up their butt. Another example of why we should all vote for people like Bernie. :light:

Mexitron - 7-4-2016 at 02:54 PM

it does seem something of a boondoggle to use all that energy to desal water when only 20 percent of the water in the state goes to residential (including landscaping) and commercial uses. The other 80 percent of that goes to agriculture. Of that, the current whipping post is almonds but they only use 10 percent, which if you've driven the Central Valley doesn't seem like much in comparison to the endless orchards. So where is all the water going? 25 percent goes to raising cattle, another 25 percent is indirectly related to growing cattle. Take a drive through the Colorado River Valley and Imperial Districts and see all the acreage devoted to growing alfalfa in the desert! That's all for cattle. Well, some for China too. So if we shift just some of that cattle ranching to Texas and further east (where there's better rangeland and more rainfall) there would be enough extra water to mothball these desal plants.