Would a desalination-facility help?

[DetlefK]

The Gulf-states get their industrial-grade water from desalination-plants at the coast. For example, the biggest desalination-plant in the world is the Jebel Ali Power and Desalination Plant in the UAE. It produces 330 million gallons per day from seawater. (Soon to be upgraded to 470 million gallons.)

Let's say, California builds a desalination-plant for 100 million gallons of water per day. Would that make a difference overall for the state?

(To be used as drinking water, minerals have to be added afterwards.)

[tularetom]

1. At a very conservative consumption rate of 50 gallons per capita per day

a 100 million gallon per day plant would serve only about 2 million of the state's 37 million people. Of course most of those 37 million live near the coast so transporting the desalinized water would be less costly than if it had to be distributed to the less densely populated interior.

One plant probably wouldn't have much impact but 4 or 5 plants located in coastal regions of Southern California might free up a lot of existing water for use elsewhere in the state.

[4139]

2. Ground water extraction and sealevel rise-- just saw this on another site 5 minutes ago

Large-scale groundwater extraction for irrigation, drinking water or industry has resulted in an annual rise in sea levels of approximately 0.8mm - this works out at one quarter of total annual sea-level rise (3.1mm). The remaining total can be attributed to thermal expansion (50%) and run off from glaciers and ice caps (25% approx.).
http://www.waterworld.com/articles/2010/11/groundwater-depletion-linked-to-rising.html

[Auggie]

3. More / larger reservoirs

we need to retain more rain and snow melt in the winter.

I loathe them as much as anyone, but they're needed.

[Brother Buzz]

4. Yes, we've outgrown our storage capacity

One proposed project the Feds, state, farmers, and even the conservationists are warming to is Sites reservoir, west of Maxwell.


The proposed, though yet to be built, Sites Reservoir would be a large off-stream reservoir in the Sacramento Valley in Northern California, a project of the California Department of Water Resources. Its primary purpose is to collect winter flood flows from the Sacramento River, diverting the water upstream of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and pumping it into an artificial lake located west of Colusa. The estimated water yield would be between 470,000 to 640,000 acre feet (0.58 to 0.79 km3) per year, depending on yearly rainfall and environmental regulations.

The reservoir would be operated as part of the California State Water Project (SWP) and is projected to cost between $2.3—3.2 billion. According to a 2013 Bureau of Reclamation study, it would provide economic benefits of between $248.8–276.2 million per year, while annual operating costs would be in the range of $10–20 million.




The new buzzword in water management is off-stream storage

[Sirveri]

5. Part of the issue with Desal is electrical use.

Our grid is already strapped and it would require additional power generation capacity that doesn't presently exist in state.

Also it produces very large quantities of brine water effluent which would have a significant impact on surrounding sea life due to thermal changes and increased salinity.

Finally, I had a friend who lived in Saudi for a while, and he was told not to drink the water if he valued his kidneys because there was still too much salt in it.

That said, we'll likely need to pursue a combination of measures to restore the states hydrologic profile to sustainability.

[Throd]

6. The first airplane wasn't very good either.

I keep hearing all the reasons why desalinization won't work, but I think those problems can be addressed and improved upon over time.

[hunter]

7. Desalinization is a mature technology and works well. It's the energy that's the problem.

Burning fossil fuels to desalinate water is insane. It's simply not a sustainable behavior.

[NYC_SKP]

8. A terrible idea, it would lead to further over-development.

Our pristine coastlines, especially.

Let's just cut out water waste, grow cities in a sustainable fashion, and restore the Delta.

We'll be fine if we just live within our means instead of using drinking water to wash SUVs and spray poop off sidewalks.

[antiquie]

9. R'amen, brother