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Letters: Desalination would only make water more costly, not solve shortage
Sacbee ^ | January 2025 | Bob Rodger, Los Osos

Posted on 01/24/2025 4:44:48 PM PST by Libloather

Desalination won’t end water shortage

Re “Scrap high-speed rail” (Letters, Dec. 28): Don Anderson’s letter advocates scraping the bullet train and using the money for desalination plants in Southern California.

Our water problems have been caused by drought, which is a symptom of global warming. One of the causes of global warming is our dependence on burning fuel for transportation.

Desalination would exacerbate the problem. It takes 1,500 kilowatt-hours to produce a million gallons of desalinated water. That’s a lot of carbon being put into the atmosphere.

The solution to global warming isn’t to make more air conditioners, and the solution to our water problems isn’t to make costly water. We do need dependable, efficient, clean, public transportation in our rural areas and cities, and we need to be responsible when we travel.

(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...


TOPICS: Local News; Outdoors; Science; Weather
KEYWORDS: california; costly; desalination; gonuclearpower; hydroelectricpower; shortage; water
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To: Libloather
Enough with the global climate magical thinking. How about some actual solutions?

Desal plants are proven. The Israelis are even selling excess water to their neighbors.

In addition to desal plants, Southern California needs generator-powered pumps to supply seawater to fire hydrants during emergencies.

Also, Los Angeles County should buy a massive fleet of used fire trucks to be stationed in endangered areas during fire threats.

To top it off, the state should create a program to outfit swimming pools with generator-powered water pumps.

Those are just off the top of my head.

21 posted on 01/24/2025 5:08:27 PM PST by Jeff Chandler (THE ISSUE IS NEVER THE ISSUE. THE REVOLUTION IS THE ISSUE.)
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To: Libloather

22 posted on 01/24/2025 5:09:05 PM PST by HYPOCRACY (Democracy is dead. Long live the Republic!)
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To: Libloather

the ticket is to use digital twins of small modular desalintaion plants paired with a digital twin of a gigapress inside an ai factory to produce the skill to make a desalination plant that will work independently or in concert and can fit in a truck or a rocket ship.

and then set up the manufacturing plant and desalinate seawater for $200@acre foot.


23 posted on 01/24/2025 5:10:39 PM PST by ckilmer
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To: Libloather
Our water problems have been caused by drought, which is a symptom of global warming. One of the causes of global warming is our dependence on burning fuel for transportation.

Fairytale alert.

24 posted on 01/24/2025 5:11:44 PM PST by Seaplaner (Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never...in nothing, great or small...Winston ChurchIill)
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To: LibertyOh

You’re welcome. This is from Wikipedia (hadn’t checked in a while). Right in line with my numbers:

“In 2012, cost averaged $0.75 per cubic meter. By 2022, that had declined (before inflation) to $0.41.”

(a cubic meter is 256 gallons)


25 posted on 01/24/2025 5:13:26 PM PST by BobL
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To: Libloather

The current costs to Israel is $0.50/1000 litres.

With new technology coming around, it will be less than this, when you count for inflation, in the near future.


26 posted on 01/24/2025 5:13:55 PM PST by Jonty30 (If you ate your twin in the womb, your pronouns should be we/us.)
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To: Libloather

“Our water problems have been caused by drought, which is a symptom of global warming.“

You know floods are caused by global warming too.

https://www.npr.org/2024/10/09/nx-s1-5144216/climate-change-hurricane-helene

So is snow in Florida.

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/opinion/letters/2025/01/24/snow-freezing-weather-make-desantis-notice-climate-change-letters-florida/77912048007/

So is pleasant, nice weather.

https://www.noaa.gov/media-release/climate-change-to-shift-global-pattern-of-mild-weather

So are earthquakes.

https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/earthquakes/will-we-have-more-earthquakes-because-of-climate-change


27 posted on 01/24/2025 5:14:03 PM PST by packagingguy
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To: Libloather

Thank you....
The idea is not to use desalination as the main source of water, but to use it to mitigate short fall of supply.


28 posted on 01/24/2025 5:14:37 PM PST by Doc91678 (Doc91678)
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To: ClearCase_guy

California could make a ton of cash on Utah and Arizona and Nevada if they ever got around to making desalination plants a reality and building pipelines to these states.


29 posted on 01/24/2025 5:15:06 PM PST by Jonty30 (If you ate your twin in the womb, your pronouns should be we/us.)
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To: Libloather

New technology reduces costs and chemicals in desalination

https://www.spacedaily.com/m/reports/New_technology_reduces_costs_and_chemicals_in_seawater_desalination_999.html


30 posted on 01/24/2025 5:17:24 PM PST by Jyotishi (Seeking the truth, a fact at a time.)
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To: Libloather

Tried to get into that website—impossible without giving an arm and your left leg. No. Sites are desperate for information and revenue, but in my opinion they are doing it wrong.
The internet milieu is rapidly changing, sites are looking for ways to stay relevant and make money. They seem to not know what is in their best interests.


31 posted on 01/24/2025 5:20:06 PM PST by Fungi
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To: gundog

tow that iceberg the size of Delaware up and park it off the coast


32 posted on 01/24/2025 5:20:43 PM PST by bdfromlv (Leavenworth hard time)
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To: fella
Not to mention that the most efficient and reliable desalination plants are made by Israel who the state refuses to do business with because it fights back against those who murder its citizens.

To be fair, California murders its own citizens.

We could ask the murdered ones who got burned to death in the Palisades fires like the Hamas October 7th victims, but they're dead.

33 posted on 01/24/2025 5:24:06 PM PST by kiryandil (No one in AZ that voted for Trump voted for Gallego )
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To: Libloather

Drought? There was record rainfall a couple years ago. They let almost all of it run out to the sea for the sake of an irrelevant little bait fish. Desalination is a good idea but just building reservoirs...in short, doing the exact opposite of what Gavin Newsome has done by removing several dams....and containing rainwater and snow melt is what California desperately needs.


34 posted on 01/24/2025 5:24:22 PM PST by FLT-bird
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To: Libloather

I honestly thought this was The Bee. It’s hard to tell anymore.


35 posted on 01/24/2025 5:25:22 PM PST by 3RIVRS
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To: Libloather

Desalination costs $1000 per acre foot. That’s $9 billion for the nine million acre feet used by all Californians for all purposes besides agriculture.


36 posted on 01/24/2025 5:25:45 PM PST by Thud
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To: 3RIVRS

Close enough. It’s the Sacramento Bee.


37 posted on 01/24/2025 5:32:09 PM PST by Thud
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To: Jyotishi

They are even developing powerless desalination, using the same kind of osmosis as kidney dialysis machines.


38 posted on 01/24/2025 5:37:32 PM PST by Jonty30 (If you ate your twin in the womb, your pronouns should be we/us.)
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To: Libloather

Huh? Wouldn’t that depend on how cheaply it could be done?

Unless there’s a shortage of sea water I don’t know about..


39 posted on 01/24/2025 5:40:25 PM PST by enumerated (81 million votes my ass)
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To: Libloather

CA has plenty of water. Their greater priority is to get rid of humans.


40 posted on 01/24/2025 5:41:10 PM PST by lurk (u)
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