Posted on 04/25/2015 7:34:42 AM PDT by Mean Daddy
As surely as the hot, dry Santa Ana winds bring blue skies to the coast and wildfires to the hills, severe California droughts bring calls to build desalination plants up and down the seashore.
All that ocean water, begging to be converted to fresh and pumped into our pipelines, would solve our water supply problems instantly and permanently, boosters say. In the coming months, the drumbeat will only get louder.
That's not only because the current drought is the longest and most severe in memory, but because a $1-billion desalination project scheduled to start operating in Carlsbad this fall will be attracting lots of attention. The plant, the largest of its kind in the U.S., is designed to provide San Diego County with about 50 million desalinated gallons a day, about 7% of its water needs.
"A lot of people are watching what's going to happen in Carlsbad," says Peter MacLaggan, the executive overseeing the project for its developer, privately held Poseidon Water. "They're going to base their future decisions on the success of this project."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Isn’t $7 Billion just for the first phase?
>>The biggest of all the projects was NAWAPA which would bring water from Alaska and British Columbia to the lower 48 and northern Mexico.
Lyndon LaRouche has been pushing for NAWAPA since 1982. But he’s been tarred and feathered as politically incorrect here on FR by knee jerk airheads who have never read a ding dong word he’s written.
http://archive.larouchepac.com/node/15628
the invaders of California from the North East are just as bad or worse than the illegals!!!
Why not erect thousands of windmills to provide power to the dasal plants?
I was contacted by the contractor to give cost estimates on some of the refurbishment work. After looking into it and preparing some estimates, it was clear that the work would be extensive. Some issues:
Original osmotic pressure (to drive the water through the membranes) was about 850 PSI. New membranes are less then half that.
Seawater intake pumps were located off shore and are submersibles. Those pumps are no longer build and no replacement was found, though they were still looking.
The computer system was state of the art in 1990 and used a new storage device (at the time): Floppy discs.
We decided not to pursue this project further, the headaches were not worth it and other companies are better suited for the required scope.
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“The least visible cost, of course, is environmental damage. Ocean inflows suck up and kill larval marine organisms”
Larval Marine Americans are protesting.
Or send five million Mexicans back.
Isnt $7 Billion just for the first phase?
Oh, just pick a number that sounds good. They have no idea and say whatever they think sounds best at the time.
Oldplayer
California has 17 desalination plants in the works, either partially constructed or through exploration and planning phases. The list of locations includes Bay Point, in the Delta, Redwood City, seven in Santa Cruz / Monterey Bay, Cambria, Oceaneo, Redondo Beach, Huntington Beach, Dana Point, Camp Pendleton, Oceanside and Carlsbad.
Carlsbad is the United States’ largest desalination plant is expected to produce 50 million gallons a day to 110,000 customers in San Diego County at an estimated cost of $1b.—Wikipedia
That sounds a lot like “You can’t just drill your way to lower gas prices.”
“But I Would be willing to bet the same author approves of a 100 billion dollar train to nowhere.”
He does. Michael Hiltzik is a mainstream Green and a Jerry Brown buttboy.
That is exactly correct. The same reason there are not Wind Farms on Cape Cod.
Moreover, I have seen first hand the desalination plants in Saudi Arabia. They are amazing - and they supply tons of water. We are not talking Star Trek technology here folks. They have been doing this for decades.
The Columbia River is much closer and has more water than California could ever dream of using.
Should get less water, not more. To hell with California. Hope it never rains or snows there again.
Yes, but once you tear out all the dams (for the fishies) like the Greenies are demanding, it will be hard to capture that water.
The article (farticle?) offers no alternatives.
A lot fewer in number, though; most of them flock to the Carolinas and Florida, taking their unfortunate voting habits with them and ruining those places.
Actually the evaporation residue would be pure sea salt, provided the salt water was properly filtered as added to the system.
The $68 billion to be spent on Governor Moonbeam's unneeded and unwanted high speed rail line would be better spent building 68 desal plants.
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