Desalination -- the removal of salt from salt water -- would be the ultimate solution to water woes -- if it can be done cheaply enough. That's a big if: "The best estimates are $2 to $2.50 per ton for desalination," says de Villiers. "That not really that far from the real cost of delivering water from the Colorado River, but California's water is so heavily subsidized that they are paying 10 cents per ton when the real cost is closer to $2.50 per ton."http://waterindustry.org/Water-Facts/water-costs-8.htmsnip
Water subsidies are a fact of life in the western United States. According to de Villiers, they amount to $500 per acre. He alleges that "70 percent of the farmers' profits in California's Central Valley -- which is supposed to be the richest farmland in the world -- came directly through taxpayer subsidization."