Posted on 04/05/2015 11:09:11 AM PDT by grundle
Israel has gone through one of the driest winters in its history, but despite the lean rainy season, the government has suspended a longstanding campaign to conserve water.
The familiar public messages during recent years of drought, often showing images of parched earth, have disappeared from television despite weeks of balmy weather with record low rainfalls in some areas.
The level of the Sea of Galilee, the country’s natural water reservoir, is no longer closely tracked in news reports or the subject of anxious national discussion.
The reason: Israel has in recent years achieved a quiet water revolution through desalination.
With four plants currently in operation, all built since 2005, and a fifth slated to go into service this year, Israel is meeting much of its water needs by purifying seawater from the Mediterranean. Some 80 percent of domestic water use in Israeli cities comes from desalinated water, according to Israeli officials.
“There’s no water problem because of the desalination,” said Hila Gil, director of the desalination division in the Israel Water Authority. “The problem is no longer on the agenda.”
The struggle over scarce water resources has fueled conflict between Israel and its neighbors, but the country is now finding itself increasingly self-sufficient after years of dependency on rainfall and subterranean aquifers.
Israel’s experience might also offer some important lessons, or at least contrast, for states like California. Now gripped by drought, with the all-important snowpack averaging only 26 percent of normal, California has struggled with desalination efforts in the past.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
Santa Barbara built a desalination plant in 1991, then the rains hit, and they mothballed it in 1992, now they are reopening it and Carlsbad is building the largest desalination plant in the Western hemisphere.
In 2011 the United States, along with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Spain was among the top 4 markets for desalinated water, it isn’t like we don’t know about it, or won’t incorporate it as the market dictates.
“Despite these hurdles, however, the United States ranks fourth among markets for desalinated water behind Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Spain, according to an International Desalination Association presentation from 2011.”
http://www.bna.com/us-desalination-industry-n17179876105/
Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant
The Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination facility is a drought-proof, alternative water supply that provides up to 25 million gallons per day of drinking water to the region.
Seawater coming into the plant goes through a rigorous pretreatment process then freshwater is separated from the seawater using reverse osmosis. The end product is high-quality drinking water that supplies up to 10 percent of the region’s needs.
http://www.tampabaywater.org/tampa-bay-seawater-desalination-plant/index.aspx
I kinda figured as much but there is a vague “pee in the pool” aspect to dumping it back where you’re gonna pull more ;’)
Israel, 8,000 square miles and a population of 8 million. Powers desalination with nuclear power.
California 163,000 square miles, population of 38 million and no one willing to store nuclear waste in “my back yard.”
Based upon the cost and production of the Israeli desal plants, the estimated cost of California’s high speed rail would produce over 6% of the current total water production in the state.
There's no money left for things like desalination plants. Besides, the liberal elites will have plenty of water to fill their swimming pools ...
So it's no big deal.
There are a couple ways to desalinate seawater, most of our Navy ships used distilling plants back when I was involved in their construction (70’s). They may have switched to reverse osmosis nowadays - but there is no excuse for California’s problem since the ocean is, you know, right there.
52 cents per cubic meter - 264 gallons in 1 cubic meter.
That’s a lot of extra salty water to return to the sea but it seems the ocean could handle it. For the vast Pacific Ocean adding back extra salty water. would be a miniscule blip for california concerns.
More like peeing in the Pacific. No one’s going to notice. The Pacific is very, very big.
Are you sure about that calculation 264gal is 1 cubic meter?
Of possible interest.
I got caught on a question close to this awhile back. Can you believe there are over seven gallons of water in a cubic foot? Yes, the calculation of 264 gallons per cubic meter is correct, but hard to comprehend.
Desalination is much too complicated. Jerry can’t even spell it.
by the dozens is right. and they should have been building a long time ago.
israel has about 8 million people. Cali has about 38 million.
israel land size is about 8k square miles. cali is 163k square miles.
“In Israel, environmental costs are not taken into account when calculating the costs of desalinated water,” said Nurit Kliot, a professor of environmental studies at Haifa University.
Lets hear it for the big ice melt!
Current level of the Yam haKinneret (Sea of Galilee).
http://www.savethekinneret.com/
Gotta suck being a Democrat in California - knowing that a bunch of JEWS halfway around the world had the same problems with water, but instead made mincemeat of the issue by applying a bit of technology.
America has been comfortable for too long. When you are insulated from reality you make decisions that are divorced from reality.
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