FTA: > The primary byproduct of desal is brine, which facilities pump back out to sea. The stuff sinks to the seafloor and wreaks havoc on ecosystems, craterin

FTA: > The primary byproduct of desal is brine, which facilities pump back out to sea. The stuff sinks to the seafloor and wreaks havoc on ecosystems, cratering oxygen levels and spiking salt content. The issue is the dissolution process is slow enough that the salt has time to wreck havoc on the environment. And if you're taking river water or aquifer water to dilute the brine to a point near the local salinity why go through the whole desalination process to start with instead of using the water to dilute this byproduct? It's easy to forget that at large scales the ocean doesn't really disperse things evenly. Surface salinity for example ranges from 30-40 g/kg across the surface of the ocean. https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width_feature/public/images/591162main_pia14786-43_full.jpg https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width_f...