Do you mean sea water? The amount of fresh water the human race will extract from the oceans will be what fraction of a percentage point of the total? Not accounting for, of course, the fact that most of it will make its way back to the oceans.
If pumping it back in has a local effect, then by all means try to mitigate that. But the idea that we're producing 'toxic waste' by creating saltier sea water is absurd.
What is with journalism today?
Maybe let's not attack the journalist.
[1] https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/ocean/d...
So the solution is obvious. Mix 1 part brine with X parts seawater before releasing. Oceans are big, so X can be a very large number, if that is necessary.
As the article points out, desalinization produces "37.5 billion gallons (142 billion liters) of this salty-ass junk every day." What's your plan for pumping in X times that from the oceans, diluting it, and then pumping it out?
They're already pumping in 37.5B + 37.5*2.5/1.5B gallons of it, so pumping in a multiple of that is just a problem requiring money.
But getting the money to do so requires scaring the public into giving it to them, thus the scare articles like this one in the press.
Also, why do you think that paper does not address the option of pumping in more ocean water and diluting it? (It's paywalled - if you'd like a PDF I can get you one.)
Any problem of providing fresh water for human civilization is "just a problem requiring money." It's not like there is a lack of water on the Earth. So it's kind of silly to pick one single particular aspect (diluting brine) to try to hand-wave away as just a money problem.
In general, money is a significant constraint on engineering and can't be hand-waved away.