The current salt market is based on a supply of actively produced salt. Only ~7%* of worldwide production is "solar salt", derived from evaporating sea water. T

The current salt market is based on a supply of actively produced salt. Only ~7%* of worldwide production is "solar salt", derived from evaporating sea water. The rest is actively mined or extracted by other methods. Dumping 200 million tons of new "solar salt" on the market would collapse prices and signal the end for the existing player in the salt industry. I don't think this would be an issue in the long term as salt derived from a hypothetical mass-desalinization industry is essentially free. Replacing heavy industry with the byproduct of an essential and beneficial process is the very definition of economic and environmental efficiency. California gets a secure water supply, consumers and industry get cheaper salt, and the imprint of the salt mining industry is no longer a concern in the environment. *Source: http://www.saltinstitute.org/salt-101/production-industry/ http://www.saltinstitute.org/salt-101/production-industry/