4 ms·

Nuclear power plants combined with desalination. You all have a lot of water in San Diego, it's just salty.

by edmcnulty101 4y ago

credit_guy 4y ago
I don't think that works, unfortunately. San Diego has a large desal plant [1], that cost one billion dollars and produces 100 million gallons of fresh water per day. In 30 years, that's about 1 trillion gallons, which comes to about 0.1 cents per gallon of CAPEX amortization costs. That may sound like not much, but farmers buy water in huge quantities. So huge that they are measured in acre-feet. One acre foot is 325k gallons, and sells nowadays for up to $2000 [2], but which historically used to sell for less than $200 [3]. That is 0.006 or 0.0006 cents per gallon. So just the capex cost of a desal plant is at least 15 times higher than what farmers pay in the middle of a record drought. The aqueducts will cost money to build too, and judging by the high speed rail saga in California, they'll cost quite a lot, probably in the many billions. So, even if one came with nuclear electricity that's "too cheap to meter", you won't be able to substitute water from rivers. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_%22Bud%22_Lewis_Carlsbad_Desalination_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_%22Bud%22_Lewis_Carlsba... [2] https://gvwire.com/2022/04/26/drought-ravaged-farmers-pay-up-to-2000-an-acre-foot-for-water/ https://gvwire.com/2022/04/26/drought-ravaged-farmers-pay-up... [3] https://aquaoso.com/blog/california-agricultural-water-prices/ https://aquaoso.com/blog/california-agricultural-water-price...
- edmcnulty101 4y ago
  The farmers situation is unsustainable if they have to be parasitic off of the rest of the country. At some point they will have to peel the band aid off. The people who live in S.D. are what's important. There's plenty of other states with favorable climates to grow crops in.

4 ms·

Nuclear power plants combined with desalination. You all have a lot of water in San Diego, it's just salty.

by edmcnulty101 4y ago

Nuclear power plants combined with desalination. You all have a lot of water in San Diego, it's just salty.

credit_guy 4y ago
I don't think that works, unfortunately. San Diego has a large desal plant [1], that cost one billion dollars and produces 100 million gallons of fresh water per day. In 30 years, that's about 1 trillion gallons, which comes to about 0.1 cents per gallon of CAPEX amortization costs. That may sound like not much, but farmers buy water in huge quantities. So huge that they are measured in acre-feet. One acre foot is 325k gallons, and sells nowadays for up to $2000 [2], but which historically used to sell for less than $200 [3]. That is 0.006 or 0.0006 cents per gallon. So just the capex cost of a desal plant is at least 15 times higher than what farmers pay in the middle of a record drought. The aqueducts will cost money to build too, and judging by the high speed rail saga in California, they'll cost quite a lot, probably in the many billions. So, even if one came with nuclear electricity that's "too cheap to meter", you won't be able to substitute water from rivers. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_%22Bud%22_Lewis_Carlsbad_Desalination_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_%22Bud%22_Lewis_Carlsba... [2] https://gvwire.com/2022/04/26/drought-ravaged-farmers-pay-up-to-2000-an-acre-foot-for-water/ https://gvwire.com/2022/04/26/drought-ravaged-farmers-pay-up... [3] https://aquaoso.com/blog/california-agricultural-water-prices/ https://aquaoso.com/blog/california-agricultural-water-price...
- edmcnulty101 4y ago
  The farmers situation is unsustainable if they have to be parasitic off of the rest of the country. At some point they will have to peel the band aid off. The people who live in S.D. are what's important. There's plenty of other states with favorable climates to grow crops in.