3 ms·

Does anyone have educated views on desalinization tech? That seems to be the few ways out of this that's totally within our control. I imagine we'll rob Peter t

Does anyone have educated views on desalinization tech? That seems to be the few ways out of this that's totally within our control. I imagine we'll rob Peter to pay Paul with it via extincting a bunch fish we didn't mean to in desal turbines or something unexpected like that, but that aside..

mdorazio 5y ago
It works just fine, but it's expensive and requires a lot of power as well as access to an ocean. You can read about the one that San Diego uses for something like 7% of total water needs here: https://www.carlsbaddesal.com/ https://www.carlsbaddesal.com/ and here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_%22Bud%22_Lewis_Carlsbad_Desalination_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_%22Bud%22_Lewis_Carlsba...
- dogman144 5y ago
  thanks!
blooalien 5y ago
I've read about some pretty interesting recent developments in desalination and other water "cleaning" technologies lately, but they're all still "in the lab" as it were. Nothing of the newest and most amazing stuff I've read about has yet progressed to the point of being in any widespread use. As another reply mentions, existing technologies that are in use tend to be quite expensive (in terms of cost and power/resource usage required to get the job done on any sort of large scale).
- dogman144 5y ago
  my sense as well
bsder 5y ago
> That seems to be the few ways out of this that's totally within our control. Desalinization works just fine--if you have an ocean nearby. In California, desalinization plants keep getting built and will eventually be able to handle the water needs of people near the coasts. However, there is no way desalinization can ever support farming. And that's 80+% of the water consumption. Either you shut down the farms now or when the water runs out--that's the only option.
- dogman144 5y ago
  Why can’t you pipeline desalted water? Or is there not enough throughout. Take oil tech for refinery storage and transport and use it for water.
  - bsder 5y ago
    You can pipeline desalted water just fine. The problem for agriculture is that desalinization is expensive--several orders of magnitude more expensive than sucking it out of the aquifer. You won't be growing any cheap or staple crops with that. And, we could certainly supply the people in the Central Valley of California with pipelined desalinated water. However, if the agribusinesses disappear, so will the cities. Thus making a water pipeline moot.
gumby 5y ago
Another problem is that you have to do something with the salt. The standard thing is to pumping back into the water, which has local downside.

mdorazio 5y ago

It works just fine, but it's expensive and requires a lot of power as well as access to an ocean. You can read about the one that San Diego uses for something like 7% of total water needs here: https://www.carlsbaddesal.com/ https://www.carlsbaddesal.com/ and here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_%22Bud%22_Lewis_Carlsbad_Desalination_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_%22Bud%22_Lewis_Carlsba...

dogman144 5y ago
thanks!

blooalien 5y ago

I've read about some pretty interesting recent developments in desalination and other water "cleaning" technologies lately, but they're all still "in the lab" as it were. Nothing of the newest and most amazing stuff I've read about has yet progressed to the point of being in any widespread use. As another reply mentions, existing technologies that are in use tend to be quite expensive (in terms of cost and power/resource usage required to get the job done on any sort of large scale).

dogman144 5y ago
my sense as well

bsder 5y ago

> That seems to be the few ways out of this that's totally within our control. Desalinization works just fine--if you have an ocean nearby. In California, desalinization plants keep getting built and will eventually be able to handle the water needs of people near the coasts. However, there is no way desalinization can ever support farming. And that's 80+% of the water consumption. Either you shut down the farms now or when the water runs out--that's the only option.

dogman144 5y ago
Why can’t you pipeline desalted water? Or is there not enough throughout. Take oil tech for refinery storage and transport and use it for water.
- bsder 5y ago
  You can pipeline desalted water just fine. The problem for agriculture is that desalinization is expensive--several orders of magnitude more expensive than sucking it out of the aquifer. You won't be growing any cheap or staple crops with that. And, we could certainly supply the people in the Central Valley of California with pipelined desalinated water. However, if the agribusinesses disappear, so will the cities. Thus making a water pipeline moot.

gumby 5y ago

Another problem is that you have to do something with the salt. The standard thing is to pumping back into the water, which has local downside.