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Slowmad
Nomad
Posts: 243
Registered: 3-24-2005
Location: Alta California
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The brine resulting from desal is evidently very bad juju.
You'd have processed water to drink, but not much left to fish for if you pump it back into the sea. That, and you need a way to power the desal
plant.
Using elementary risk/benefit analysis, the overall ambience and health of the bay might not be a fair trade for another boomer vacation ghetto.
In my opinion.
The only requirement for love or chorizo is confidence.
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TMW
Select Nomad
Posts: 10659
Registered: 9-1-2003
Location: Bakersfield, CA
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A couple of sites on desalting water.
www.world-wide-water.com/#Home
www.acwa.com/television/desalting_water_facts.asp
From the latter:
California's Water: Facts on Desalting Water
What is Ocean Desalination?
Ocean desalination is the process of converting seawater into drinking water. Fresh water is separated from the salty ocean water and used for
drinking and other potable water uses. The remaining salts and impurities are then discharged as brine.
There are two main methods for producing desalinated water: distillation and reverse osmosis.
Distillation is the oldest desalination process and has been used throughout the world for centuries. Distillation uses heat to evaporate water and
separate it from salt and impurities. The evaporated water is captured and condensed as fresh water. The process is energy-intensive and used
primarily in the Middle East and other oil-rich areas of the world.
Reverse osmosis uses membranes to separate fresh water from seawater. Ocean water is forced at very high pressures through a series of membranes,
which allow water molecules to pass but not salts and other impurities. The remaining salts and residual water are discharged as brine, typically into
the ocean.
Thanks to recent advances in technology, turning ocean water into drinking water is not as energy-intensive as it was a decade ago. These
technological developments have reduced the costs and energy requirements of producing desalinated water. In some coastal areas, it is beginning to
look like an increasingly feasible way to develop a drought-proof and reliable supply of water.
The desalination process also can be used to remove salt from brackish groundwater or recycled water with a high salt content. The energy required for
desalting brackish groundwater is generally less than for ocean desalination.
Facts and Statistics About Ocean Desalination
According to the U.S. Desalination Coalition, there are more than 11,000 desalination facilities operating in 120 countries around the world. Most of
those are located in the Middle East.
In the U.S., there are about 1,200 plants in operation that desalinate either seawater or brackish groundwater. Almost all of the seawater
desalination facilities in the United States are small systems used for high-valued industrial or commercial needs. This may change in coming years.
In California, several small-scale pilot ocean desalination plants have been developed in coastal areas such as the San Francisco Bay Area and
Southern California.
Currently, there are about 24 desalting plants operating in California that provide water for municipal purposes, with a total capacity of about
79,000 acre-feet. The number includes both seawater and brackish groundwater desalting facilities.
Over the past five years, public agencies and private entities together have put forward more than 20 proposals for large desalination facilities
along the California coast. Some of the proposed projects would represent the largest desalination plants in the United States.
If all of those proposed projects were built, the state’s seawater desalination capacity would rise to more than 450 million gallons per day, which
would supply roughly 6% of the state’s urban water demand.
The proposed plants range in size from a small facility providing water for a private development in Monterey to much larger plants in Southern
California that would rank among the largest desalination plants in the United States.
California communities are pursuing desalination for a variety of reasons. For Southern California, a key factor driving interest is population
growth, the need for drought reliability and a desire to reduce reliance on imported water supplies.
On the Central Coast, local water supply limitations, growth and drought concerns are prompting many agencies to consider seawater desalination.
In Northern California, where four desalination plants are proposed, agencies are seeking improved water reliability during droughts and emergencies
as well as additional supplies for growing service areas.
Although the cost and energy requirements are coming down, ocean desalination is still a costly endeavor. There are also potential environmental
impacts associated with ocean intakes that bring water into plants and the disposal of brine produced in the desalination process.
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craiggers
Junior Nomad
Posts: 42
Registered: 3-2-2007
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No offence to anyone who lives there now but Gonzga Bay looks like it could use a little bulldozing already. All those shanty houses, trailers &
palapas pushed right up on the beach look kind of hideous to me. What do all those folks do with their sewage. Wait, let me guess.
[Edited on 5-17-2007 by craiggers]
[Edited on 5-17-2007 by craiggers]
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MrBillM
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 21656
Registered: 8-20-2003
Location: Out and About
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Mood: It's a Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Day
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DeSal
Watching "Meet the Press" this a.m. on NBC, I saw a commercial by GE bragging that their equipment had resulted in Two Billion Gallons of Water
harvested last year worldwide. It initially sounds big until you think about it. The 300 million people in the U.S. would account for that much
usage in One DAY at 6.7+ Gallons per person. While I realize that there are other manufacturers involved in the business, the process is still
miniscule worldwide.
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