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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

Bobby Los Osos is right. Just let California burn. Call it the Charcoal State.


41 posted on 01/24/2025 5:41:10 PM PST by FlingWingFlyer (For a good time, call Lisa M. 123-4567)
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To: Jonty30

California takes a lot of water from the Colorado River that could be retained in the other states to use there. Win win


42 posted on 01/24/2025 5:42:11 PM PST by LibertyOh
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

We can’t forget the Delta anchovy.


43 posted on 01/24/2025 5:43:56 PM PST by FlingWingFlyer (For a good time, call Lisa M. 123-4567)
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To: Libloather

I would love to see the cost analysis. I imagine all in the costs of operating fairly localized desalination would be cheaper than maintaining 500 miles of water distribution from the sierras and NorCal. It doesn’t have to be fossil fuel but I guess with these people nuclear is a non-starter. The state has done 3 things under Gavin Newsom. 1) it decommissioned nuclear plants 2) refused permits for additional desalination and 3) destroyed several dams. It also failed to add enough new water reservoirs and rationed water to farmland. A few years ago Tom Selleck was accused of hiring water trucks to “steal” water from hydrants in order to use the water on his avocado farm.

Anyway it’s clear our leaders are not serious people when it comes to the most critical issues facing our state. As Adam Corolla has been saying lately, even we agree that all these “climate change” issues are coming, what are we doing about it? Are we making and storing more water? Are we clearing out dead brush? Are we building sea walls? No we’re doing stupid little silly things that add complexity, cost and inconvenience to say we tried.


44 posted on 01/24/2025 5:51:23 PM PST by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
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To: Libloather
I wouldn't even know where to start with these people.

Coprophilia has its regurgitations.
These people apparently swallow it whole.

45 posted on 01/24/2025 5:51:54 PM PST by Carry_Okie (The tree of liberty needs a rope.)
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To: LibertyOh

I like it.


46 posted on 01/24/2025 5:58:03 PM PST by Jonty30 (If you ate your twin in the womb, your pronouns should be we/us.)
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To: Libloather

They can use solar to do that!
Water reservoirs are best energy storage facilities.


47 posted on 01/24/2025 5:59:34 PM PST by AZJeep
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To: Libloather

Bullet train will never be built!
They do not even know how to finish the Nowhere to Nowhere section!
I do not believe they put a yard of rails on.


48 posted on 01/24/2025 6:01:53 PM PST by AZJeep
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To: Libloather

I thought these folks were high on solar power

In much of Cali it makes sense, tie the desalination plant into a big solar farm that exclusively powers it.

Libtard idiots would just rather say no because it may make life there easier for the average person.


49 posted on 01/24/2025 6:04:58 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Libloather

Mini nukes.


50 posted on 01/24/2025 6:06:59 PM PST by Cobra64 (Common sense isn’t common anymore.)
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To: alternatives?

“Fires increase warming, water stops fires.”

Very good!


51 posted on 01/24/2025 6:08:51 PM PST by ChessExpert (The Democratic party must be destroyed.)
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To: Libloather
California's water problems are due to mismanagement. They had the money, the engineers, the technical expertise but chose to blow it on boondoggles and failed political ideologies for greed.
52 posted on 01/24/2025 6:09:31 PM PST by SpaceBar
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To: Libloather

One KWh cost on average 17.6 cents.

0.176 X 1500 = $ 263 for million gallons.

That in Phoenix means about 20 cents per unit of water.
Guess what? Phoenix unit of water costs me about $5

I would gladly take these 20 cents!


53 posted on 01/24/2025 6:15:58 PM PST by AZJeep
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To: Libloather
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.

If you are worried about carbon in the air, fool, plant more trees.

54 posted on 01/24/2025 6:28:13 PM PST by higgmeister (In the Shadow of The Big Chicken! )
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To: BobL

The city I used to live in charges $2.69 per cubic metre.

For water that literally falls from the sky in the West Coast Rainforest.


55 posted on 01/24/2025 6:45:44 PM PST by Don W (When blacks riot, neighborhoods and cities burn. When whites riot, nations and continents burn)
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To: alternatives?

Fires increase warming, water stops fires.
= = =

What do paper and scizzors do?


56 posted on 01/24/2025 6:54:21 PM PST by Scrambler Bob (Running Rampant, and not endorsing nonsense; My pronoun is EXIT. And I am generally full of /S)
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To: ClearCase_guy

...”it rust pipes and fish make love in it” - W.C. Fields


57 posted on 01/24/2025 7:34:09 PM PST by JJBookman (Democrats = Party of leaky pipes )
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To: JJBookman

“Water. You mean like from a toilet?”


58 posted on 01/24/2025 7:38:52 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Libloather
CA has not been in drought since 2022. The level of arrogantly infantile ignorance in this letter is breathtakingly sad

According to information from the California Department of Water Resources, in 2023, California sent approximately 1.27 million acre-feet of water out to the ocean through the State Water Project, marking a significant increase in deliveries due to recent storms and a favorable water year; this represents a substantial amount of water that could not be utilized due to full reservoir capacity

For those interested in the math here 1 acre foot is 325,851 gallons of water

59 posted on 01/24/2025 8:25:58 PM PST by MNJohnnie (Don't blame me, my congressman is MTG!)
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To: Cobra64

Exactly. Small modular reactors, like those found on aircraft carriers, could make all the power a large desalination plant needs. Several of these along the coast could do a world of help for arid California.


60 posted on 01/24/2025 8:33:11 PM PST by Alas Babylon! (Repeal the Patriot Act; Abolish the DHS; reform FBI top to bottom!)
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