Didn’t I just read an article dealing with Israel having so much fresh water from their desalination plants that the cost of water is dropping and they have excess to sell?
Yes, you did.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3118303/posts
We will desalinize lots of water within a decade on the California coast. Will probably see the same in Texas. The Grand Coulee/Columbia Basin development has been very successful in promoting agriculture and there is no reason the same thing should not happen in California and Texas.
The price should go down for water, but I suspect it will end up like gasoline/diesel now - an easy vehicle for the government to levy outrageous taxes.
P.S. - some environmentalists are now telling us we will have “peak water” and we are going to run out. I laugh at them. The technology exists now to greatly reduce water waste through inefficient farm irrigation with t-tape and other drip irrigation methods. I don’t pretend to know the exact figures, but I have read that we waste more than 75% of our water in activities such as showers, brushing teeth, washing dishes, and washing our cars. However, the biggest area for saving water will be improved farm irrigation. We currently use old methods and equipment that basically drench the topsoil instead of target the roots.
Technology will provide the answers for many of societies potential ills. Too bad it does not work like that for morals!
We already reclaim a great deal of the water at our treatment plants but i believe the vast majority is used for irrigation rather than re injected into the aquifers despite it be clean and sanitary.