 Your new post is loading...
Your new post is loading...
|
Scooped by
PIRatE Lab
|
Poseidon officials say they prioritized a plant in Carlsbad instead.
|
|
Scooped by
PIRatE Lab
|
The trade-off between the opportunities and risks represented by desalination mega-projects is one of the most important issues for EPC contractors
|
|
Scooped by
PIRatE Lab
|
With Monday's ceremonial opening of the Western Hemisphere's largest ocean desalination plant, a new era began for water use in San Diego County — and possibly for the entire parched state.
California officials have been emphasizing water conservation, expansion of reservoirs and water recycling...
|
|
Scooped by
PIRatE Lab
|
|
|
|
Scooped by
PIRatE Lab
|
The Sydney desalination plant's biggest effect on the ocean is unlikely to be from the release of highly saline brine, according to the first peer-reviewed study into the industry's marine impacts.
|
|
Scooped by
PIRatE Lab
|
Here’s an idea: Let’s use the ocean to create an endless supply of pure water, no matter the amount of rain and snow that falls (or doesn&rsquo
|
|
Scooped by
PIRatE Lab
|
Machines that filter salt out of water still face the same opposition they have for generations from critics who say they are too expensive to run, kill fish as they suck in briny water, and spew greenhouse gases into the air from the energy they require to run. [...] in recent years, as technology and techniques for desalination have improved, such plants have gained momentum - enough so that in Carlsbad near San Diego, the biggest desalination facility in the Western Hemisphere is under construction and set to begin operation in two years. "[...] the project is years out from being done, but it could be in the back of people's minds as a 'what if' - and if we got into dire straits, money could be mobilized fast to finish it," said Steve Ritchie, assistant general manager for water for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. There is also the possibility that the pumps could suck in and kill small marine organisms and fish such as the endangered delta smelt, although the Concord-area plant's designers say that's unlikely because of its location at the side of a flowing channel. Environmental fears Also, though the delta water at Mallard Slough is brackish water rather than seawater - meaning it contains less salt and requires less energy to screen - the salinity level is expected to increase in coming decades as sea levels rise. The delta water plant - like the other 16 proposed along the coast and a handful of tiny plants already in use besides Sand City - would use a method called reverse osmosis, in which salty water is pulled in through filters. With better screens and technology that helps the plants power themselves by recycling the energy used to suck in water - in a way, like a hybrid car regenerates power from its own motion - the typical cost of running desalination plants can dip below $2,000 an acre-foot. Because pulling up groundwater from wells and recycling water can now cost the same or more, desalination is suddenly relatively affordable for many areas - such as the Bay Area. An expensive option"In most areas of California we have exhausted a lot of the obvious water sources, and desalination is certainly an option - but it tends to be among the most expensive, even though the price has come down from what it was in 1991," said Heather Cooley, a senior water researcher with the Pacific Research Institute, a nonprofit in Oakland.
|
Scoop.it!
