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Very interesting to me because I grew up with these ponds and drive by some of them every workday. Sure would like more specifics: which ponds are being restore

Very interesting to me because I grew up with these ponds and drive by some of them every workday. Sure would like more specifics: which ponds are being restored, which staying in production? Are some levies being removed, staying in place, being reconfigured? What's the schedule, year by year?

Animats 9y ago
The west bay ones have mostly shut down. You can look at some drained ones by driving out Seaport Blvd, which is the bay end of Woodside Road. There are still some narrow gauge tracks and hopper cars lying around. The east bay ones south of the Dumbarton Bridge are still operating. The process is simple. Seawater is let into a pond, and about half of it is allowed to evaporate. This doubles the salt concentration. That brine is moved to the next pond, which is half as big, and about half of the water is allowed to evaporate, which doubles the concentration again. The final pond is much smaller than the original, and there all the water in the now highly concentrated brine is allowed to evaporate, after which the salt is scraped up. The process takes huge land area and about five years, but little labor. Different bacteria live at the different brine concentrations. That's why the colors vary.[1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=14276449&goto=item%3Fid%3D14271144%2314276449 https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=14276449&goto=item%3Fi...