3 ms·

The only ecological problem I've heard of is pumping back the extra saline water to the ocean. Which to me sounds completely negligible in real world terms.

• schiffern 3y ago
  The problem isn't "the ocean." The problem is the brine sinks and forms a hypersaline layer, creating a dead zone in coastal waters which are typically highly biodiverse. https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/five-things-know-about-desalination https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/five-things-know... https://web.archive.org/web/20190114220150/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-environment-brine-idUSKCN1P81PX https://web.archive.org/web/20190114220150/https://www.reute...
  • kgermino 3y ago
    How far away from the shore would you need to go? I imagine it would be fairly easy to pipe the brine a few miles off shore to deeper waters. I have no idea how much of an impact that would have though.
  • BurningFrog 3y ago
    Without any estimates of magnitudes that is meaningless. Of course building infrastructure affects nature, on land and in the oceans.
    • schiffern 3y ago
      > Without any estimates of magnitudes that is meaningless. I see you didn't click my second link, and/or research it yourself. ;) But even if the magnitude of harm were unknown, that doesn't mean we can just default to "ignore it." Additional sources: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.845113/full https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.8451... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6959559/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6959559/
      • BurningFrog 3y ago
        I did read the second link, and I did not argue for "ignore it" as the default policy.