4 ms·
Desalination is an ecological disaster at any scale large enough to be useful. That excess salt needs to go somewhere and wherever it goes, it will be a proble
by mywittyname 3y ago
Desalination is an ecological disaster at any scale large enough to be useful.
That excess salt needs to go somewhere and wherever it goes, it will be a problem.
- TremendousJudge 3y agoput all salt making companies out of business, then whatever's left just carry it by train and put it in an old salt mine
- ajmurmann 3y agoWould it have a meaningful impact on the ocean if we threw the salt back in?
- gavinsyancey 3y ago"The ocean" is not a monolith. You have to pump the brine back into the ocean in a specific location (i.e. wherever the outflow pipe from the desalination plant is). And that has meaningful negative local ecological impacts.
- mywittyname 3y agoYes, absolutely. The supersaturated brine produced as a byproduct decimates local ocean life when it's pumped back into the ocean. It's already a problem while desalination is rare. Imagine how bad it will be at "human-scale". And you can't just divert the brine onto land. Where ever you put it will be salted earth - completely unlivable. And it will probably pollute ground waters.
- anthonypasq 3y agocant you just bury it in a desert/mountain or something?
- CatWChainsaw 3y agoThere is no "away" on a finite planet that has humans on every continent.