A number of coastal regions in California are exploring the use of desalination to supplement their drinking water supplies. Desalination is an expensive, energy-intensive technology that separates salt from seawater in a process called “reverse osmosis.” The process discharges a thick, soupy brine that can be toxic to aquatic life. Desalination is also used in inland areas to treat brackish or polluted water.<\/P><\/p>\n
But desalination may be more speculative boondoggle than panacea. A plant developed by Poseidon Resources in Tampa Bay, Florida, has been shut down due to poor performance. Taxpayers put up $85-million of the plant’s $110-million price tag. This may prove to be a cautionary tale for other cities considering desalination as a quick fix to their water shortage problems. Conservation and recycling programs may be a much less expensive and less risky alternative to building desalination plants.<\/P><\/p>\n
The California Coastal Commission has released a report that takes a probing look at all aspects of ocean desalination, including environmental concerns and privatization of public water supplies. The report, a first of its kind for a state agency, also examines how international trade and investment agreements could affect the commission’s ability to implement the Coastal Act when reviewing permit applications for new facilities.<\/P><\/p>\n
Reearth<\/B><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The process discharges a thick, soupy brine that can be toxic to aquatic life. Desalination is also used in inland areas to treat brackish or polluted water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}