I would love to see the major cities in California start building desalinization plants.
Every plant built would give us a much needed buffer and in the good times could even let us refill ground water (we'd never do that, I know).
Every plant built would give us a much needed buffer and in the good times could even let us refill ground water (we'd never do that, I know).
But there's a million environmental restoration projects we could be doing right now to increase the water holding capacities of our environments that are simply not being sufficiently funded. The science is pretty well done on most of these strategies while desalination of ocean water is still mostly an experimental technology that is not economically viable.
I made a very clear distinction there between brackish water and ocean water.
There's lots of sites on oceans that are making water for fractions of a cent per gallon. For instance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minjur_Seawater_Desalination_P...
We just literally don't have the technology yet. It takes an immense amount of electricity/energy to desalinate ocean water which is way more saline than brackish water. The other half of the cost is in the very high rate of corrosion of equipment.
I'm not against desalination of oceanwater. I absolutely support funding more research into it. I'm just explaining the current state of technology. It just doesn't currently exist.
You seem to have advanced knowledge that is contrary to ~everyone else. It would be helpful if you would simply state 2 numbers. First, what you think it costs, and second, what you think an economically viable cost would be.
The Dead Sea is disappearing because the freshwater that flows into it keeps getting diverted for other uses.
They are however, in talks with Jordan about piping water into the Dead Sea, and there is a similar operation for the Galilee.
There are however various salt mining operations around Dead sea using brine. That is, both in Israel, and less extensive in Jordan.
That's true of basically all of the West and the Colorado River, too.
And yes, I do get the point that if you suggested we build $6B desalination plants to grow lettuce people would balk and say, "That's not worth the money!". We should use less water on crops.