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 ...
I don’t understand why california doesn’t build them by the dozen.
Someone should let California know about this. Maybe they could build a few of these instead of that stupid bullet train.
California has struggled with desalination efforts in the past.
No, it’s the idiot, lefty environmentalists who have stifled talk about desalinization efforts in the state. That, and the fact that probably ten to twenty million people are living in that state who shouldn’t be there in the first place.
I wonder what they do with the salt and minerals that they extract from the water?
California may not have any water but it will have a multi billion dollar bullet train to nowhere.
When I was in Croatia in 1993 with the UN ,the bottled water we had was from Israel ,LOL
Can’t believe how stupid Moonbeam was for signing off on that. Check that, I shouldn’t be surprised about Governor Moonbeam Brown. Must owe some big money contributors big time.
Because the endangered sand gopher wouldn’t like it.
California should, indeed, have built them by the dozen twenty years ago, but there are environmental laws that are hurdles. I am not anti-environment, but am opposed to STUPID environmental laws.
Think of all the plants and animals DYING OFF because of the drought. I shudder for the Redwoods, and the Sierra Club should too.
1. Because 25 jellyfish a year are killed by this process. 2. Because they would have to quit whining about the Global Warm caused drought.
“California? Please pick up the White Courtesy Phone in the Lobby!”
Because the federal government has been blocking them and Texas since the 1980s.
I take it that you are new to watching this technology.
Earth to Moonbeam.
Earth to Moonbeam.
Come in Jerry.
Because to the demented liberals, gaia worshippers and moonbeam, it makes more sense to build a bullet train to nowhere anybody wants to go.
Why not do a little research instead of baying at the moon?
The pernicious Coastal Commission probably plays its usual role.
It's because Israel is run by grown-ups, while California is run by corrupt children. Just imagine if Jerry Brown were prime minister of Israel. There'd be a half-finished bullet train running from the Golan Heights to the Sinai Desert. It would be over-budget by a factor of three.
And there would be no water.
The salt and minerals will go back into the ocean. They don’t use stills much anymore; desalinization is done with polymer membranes. The membranes will allow pure water through and not the salt and dissolved stuff. You wind up with pure water on one side of the membrane and extra salty water on the other.
Post #18, excellent
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.