3 ms·

The salt you release isn't instantly diluted in the whole ocean and we're speaking, for a plant, of millions cubic meters of salt enriched water per day. The re

The salt you release isn't instantly diluted in the whole ocean and we're speaking, for a plant, of millions cubic meters of salt enriched water per day. The release area is just dying.

shellfishgene 5y ago
Can you provide a source for that? I dove near a desalination plant exit pipe in Saudi, the impact on the marine live did not seem to big in the area. But it was a small plant for a few thousand people and we did not do a proper assessment. I don't doubt there is an effect, but am not convinced that the "release area just dying" is correct.
- EricE 5y ago
  https://www.keiken-engineering.com/en/brine-disposal-how-efficient-desalination-plants-get-rid-of-toxic-remnant/ https://www.keiken-engineering.com/en/brine-disposal-how-eff... Brine disposal is indeed a complex issue. Should be noted the above URL is from a desalinization industry proponent so I would say it's probably a little more optimistically biased but it was one of the better summaries I found so it still has value from that perspective. If you do more digging around each of the solutions they discuss you can find more pro's/con's for each and you will quickly find out that it is a pretty significant issue.
  - shellfishgene 5y ago
    The link does not really show any evidence that marine ecology at brine outlets is disturbed. It does however suggest that pouring the brine on land or roads (for de-icing) are alternative solutions, which I doubt ;). I was more thinking of proper studies, such as reviewed in [0], which says in the abstract: "Ecological monitoring studies have found variable effects ranging from no significant impacts to benthic communities, through to widespread alterations to community structure in seagrass, coral reef and soft-sediment ecosystems when discharges are released to poorly flushed environments. In most other cases environmental effects appear to be limited to within 10s of meters of outfalls." So, impact yes, but "release area is just dying", probably not. [0] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0043135410002903 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00431...
throwaway894345 5y ago
This makes sense to me. I wonder how feasible it would be to release the saltier water over a broader area to reduce the salinity in any one area? Also, there are at least some ecological benefits to increasing the amount of fresh water. An extreme example is the lake that appeared in the middle of a desert in the United Arab Emirates. I have no idea how we weigh one against another.
- SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
  Now you’re paying for salt transportation again.
  - throwaway894345 5y ago
    Not if you have many small desalination plants distributed over a larger area. This would work well for less-densely populated areas.
dfilppi 5y ago
That is acceptable

The salt you release isn't instantly diluted in the whole ocean and we're speaking, for a plant, of millions cubic meters of salt enriched water per day. The release area is just dying.

shellfishgene 5y ago

Can you provide a source for that? I dove near a desalination plant exit pipe in Saudi, the impact on the marine live did not seem to big in the area. But it was a small plant for a few thousand people and we did not do a proper assessment. I don't doubt there is an effect, but am not convinced that the "release area just dying" is correct.

EricE 5y ago
https://www.keiken-engineering.com/en/brine-disposal-how-efficient-desalination-plants-get-rid-of-toxic-remnant/ https://www.keiken-engineering.com/en/brine-disposal-how-eff... Brine disposal is indeed a complex issue. Should be noted the above URL is from a desalinization industry proponent so I would say it's probably a little more optimistically biased but it was one of the better summaries I found so it still has value from that perspective. If you do more digging around each of the solutions they discuss you can find more pro's/con's for each and you will quickly find out that it is a pretty significant issue.
- shellfishgene 5y ago
  The link does not really show any evidence that marine ecology at brine outlets is disturbed. It does however suggest that pouring the brine on land or roads (for de-icing) are alternative solutions, which I doubt ;). I was more thinking of proper studies, such as reviewed in [0], which says in the abstract: "Ecological monitoring studies have found variable effects ranging from no significant impacts to benthic communities, through to widespread alterations to community structure in seagrass, coral reef and soft-sediment ecosystems when discharges are released to poorly flushed environments. In most other cases environmental effects appear to be limited to within 10s of meters of outfalls." So, impact yes, but "release area is just dying", probably not. [0] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0043135410002903 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00431...

throwaway894345 5y ago

This makes sense to me. I wonder how feasible it would be to release the saltier water over a broader area to reduce the salinity in any one area? Also, there are at least some ecological benefits to increasing the amount of fresh water. An extreme example is the lake that appeared in the middle of a desert in the United Arab Emirates. I have no idea how we weigh one against another.

SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
Now you’re paying for salt transportation again.
- throwaway894345 5y ago
  Not if you have many small desalination plants distributed over a larger area. This would work well for less-densely populated areas.

dfilppi 5y ago

That is acceptable