Jump to content
Goodbye Jesus

One Of The Driest Countries On Earth Now Makes More Freshwater Than It Needs


Fweethawt

Recommended Posts

Israel Proves the Desalination Era is Here -- http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/israel-proves-the-desalination-era-is-here/

 

July 19, 2016 — Ten miles south of Tel Aviv, I stand on a catwalk over two concrete reservoirs the size of football fields and watch water pour into them from a massive pipe emerging from the sand. The pipe is so large I could walk through it standing upright, were it not full of Mediterranean seawater pumped from an intake a mile offshore.

“Now, that’s a pump!” Edo Bar-Zeev shouts to me over the din of the motors, grinning with undisguised awe at the scene before us. The reservoirs beneath us contain several feet of sand through which the seawater filters before making its way to a vast metal hangar, where it is transformed into enough drinking water to supply 1.5 million people.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very cool! What does this mean for our oceans?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not sure... Possibly getting worse? I don't know. It sounds like whatever it is they're filtering out gets pumped back into the main supply. Unless I'm mistaken. At least I thought it said something like that anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very cool! What does this mean for our oceans?

 

The ocean is so vast in water volume compared to the relatively inconsequential brackish water being pumped back that I expect it would never make any difference in the salinity of the over-all ocean for I would expect many thousands of years.

 

In the very distant future I expect they will have to invent a use or disposal method for the salt byproduct of desalination other than pumping it back into the ocean. .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

     I imagine a problem that could arise is the salinity in the coastal waters could rise which could cause a problem in those ecosystems.  Overall, the oceans could likely handle the rise in salinity but that would assume an equal distribution of waste water being returned to oceans as opposed to simply dumping it back in the easiest and most cost-effective way which would be dumping it back at the coast like we do pretty much all our waste.  And even when we send these things "far out" it's still relatively close to shore as far as oceans are concerned.

 

          mwc

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.