Pros And Cons Of Water Desalinization

Carlos Mendez
Professor Jiménez-Justiniano
ENGL 1302-81025
08 November 2015
Liquid gold and the salt that goes with it The southwestern states of the U.S have dealt with a drought issue in the recent years that in some places have left lakes void of a precious natural resource, water. Not only is this affecting the environment but this is also leaving the residents of some communities without any water for basic necessities. This issue has some governments and businesses looking into desalinization to produce fresh water as an alternative to the diminishing natural resource. Although this appears to be the quickest and most logical solution to this problem, many have debated against this due to the high costs and the negative impact on the …show more content…
Communities that border oceans and seas choose these bodies of water as their primary source for desalinization. The issue with choosing the ocean as a primary source is the negative impact it will have on the marine ecosystem. Normally, desalinization plants use open sea infiltration to source their water, which is the least costly method, and most preferred, but can have a destructive effect on marine life. Heather Cooley co-authored an article on the website Pacific Institute where she stated that “organisms small enough to pass through [the intake screens], such as plankton, fish eggs, and larvae, are killed during processing of the salt water...” Although there is extensive historical use of open water systems, innovation can again prevail and change those methods to less destructive ones. Another method for seawater intake is the subsurface infiltration method. “Subsurface intakes …[draw] water… through perforated pipes buried in the seafloor. The overlying mud and sand act as a fine filter to screen out nearly all organisms.” (Weiser). This process has already been in use for a period and so far has proven to be successful. At the Florida Gulf Coast University, Tom Missimer, a geology professor was quoted by Mike Weiser for an online article for The Sacramento Bee, stating that there is a desalinization plant in Japan which has been using subsurface …show more content…
Brine is the byproduct of reverse osmosis desalinization, which is water that has a high salinity concentration as compared to the original seawater that was sourced. When seawater is processed, all of the brine is usually deposited back into the ocean, which increases the salinity of the areas exposed. Cooley stated in her article that diffusers are effective at disbursing the brine throughout a larger area of the ocean, which promotes effective dilution. Still, this method demonstrated that there is not a sound method of brine disposal other than reinjection into the ocean. Other methods have not proven to be as effective in disposing the brine, but one that does have some impact is disposing of brine on land. Michael Kanellos wrote an article online for Greentech Media where he states that the brine can be concentrated and dried on land so it can be sold as chemical to certain industries or as a building material. Although, this is not a perfect plan, it can be developed into something that can cut costs of brine

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