Posted on 07/01/2007 2:59:14 PM PDT by shield
BROWNSVILLE, Texas — On a one-acre site alongside a string of shrimp boats docked on the Brownsville ship channel stands a $2.2 million assembly of pipes, sheds, and humming machinery _ Texas' entree into global efforts to make sea water suitable to drink.
Opening a small spigot at the end of a fat pipe, plant operator Joel del Rio fills a plastic glass with what he says will taste "like regular bottled water."
"Sea water," he said. "It's never gonna run out."
The plant is a pilot project for the state's $150 million, full-scale sea water desalination plant slated for construction in 2010.
Desalting sea water is expensive, mostly because of the energy required. Current cost estimates run at about $650 per acre foot (326,000 gallons), as opposed to $200 for purifying the same amount of fresh water.
However, it is a growing field around the world as governments and private investors ante up where water drinkable needs are crucial.
About two-thirds of the world's desalinated water is produced in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and North Africa. Perth, Australia, is looking to meet a third of its fresh water demand by removing salt from sea water.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
If it tastes like bottled water I would be willing to pay $650 an acre foot. The $200 dollar per acre foot water in South Texas tastes like crap. I lived in Kingsville and it had the worst tasting tap water I’ve ever had.
“Sea water,” he said. “It’s never gonna run out.”
Is the amount of water on the planet conserved? Is it true, as in beer, that we only rent it?
Worst water I ever tasted was gyp water from the wells around Portales, New Mexico. Awful.
Doesn’t matter, since they changed the arsenic rules, none of it passes. In short, don’t drink the water. ;)
“Give a man a fish he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime.”
Building these across Africa will build up economonies, end drought and with that end poverty, hunger, disease and dictatorial rulerships.
Instead we hand money to tim horn dictators who I am sure are spending our billions on AIDS eradication.
Yes, the water taste pretty nasty in the valley.
Dont worry about the cost. Just quit giving foreign aid to all the countries that hate our guts.(thats just about all of them except Israel) That would give us trillions to fix all our water problems.
Build a man a fire, and he’ll stay warm for a night.
Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm until he dies.
Let me guess: The US will pay a ton of money for the purifying of sea water, then give it away to turd world countries...
Can I get a lemon with that?
That's wrong. It's supposed to go
“Give a man a fish he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he'll sit in a boat and drink beer all day.”
Agreed. Trade the technology for oil, gallon for gallon, however we set up the systems, manage them and sell ‘em the output exclusively, no one else but U.S. citizens. And in the event they try to nationalize or takeover, systems self-destruct. Time to play fair.
A shout-out to all my New Hampshire people out there -
I live in Texas now, and yes the tap water tastes like ass. It needs a nice long stew in my Brita tank before it’s drinkable.
Then I went up to my old stomping grounds in New Hampshire to visit my folks, and their artesian well (440 feet deep) puts out water that you could put in bottles and sell. It’s just so amazingly pure and cold, and the winter runoff ensures that it’s never dry.
Moral: for fresh water, move to the mountains! And if you’re in NH you get that water without income taxes or meddling politicians. Well, at least without too meddlesome politicians.
X
Well...just come up with a fancy french-sounding name for it, design a yuppie-looking label and sell it for $2 per 11-oz bottle in trendy places like Starbucks, exercise clubs and Steve Winwood concert venues.
Desalting sea water is expensive, mostly because of the energy required. Current cost estimates run at about $650 per acre foot (326,000 gallons), as opposed to $200 for purifying the same amount of fresh water.
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