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Desalination can boost US water supplies, but more environmental research needed

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 28, 2008 at 6:25 am

From Science Daily:

Recent advances in technology have made removing salt from seawater and groundwater a realistic option for increasing water supplies in some parts of the U.S., and desalination will likely have a niche in meeting the nation’s future water needs, says a new report from the National Research Council. However, a coordinated research effort with steady funding is required to better understand and minimize desalination’s environmental impacts — and find ways to further lower its costs and energy use.

“Uncertainties about desalination’s environmental impacts are currently a significant barrier to its wider use, and research on these effects — and ways to lessen them — should be the top priority,” said Amy K. Zander, chair of the committee that wrote the report and professor at Clarkson University, Potsdam, N.Y. “Finding ways to lower costs should also be an objective. A coordinated research effort dedicated to these goals could make desalination a more practical option for some communities facing water shortages.”

The report recommends that R&D efforts be overseen by the White House Office of Science and Technology, and that it be funded at $25 million per year. Currently, desalination research is funded by earmarks, which is not a steady source of funding. Currently, the private sector is funding much of the research.

Substantial uncertainties remain about the environmental impacts of desalination, the report says. Limited studies suggest that desalination MAY be less environmentally harmful than many other ways to supplement water — such as diverting freshwater from sensitive ecosystems — but definitive conclusions cannot be made without further research.

Researchers should investigate the extent to which fish and other creatures get trapped in saltwater intake systems in various settings, and seek ways to mitigate this and other impacts. Studies also should examine the long-term ecological effects of disposing of the salt concentrate that remains after desalination in rivers or the sea, a common practice. In addition, environmental evaluations of new desalination plants should be conducted, including ecological monitoring before and after the plant starts operating. The results should be synthesized with existing data in a national assessment that can guide future decision making, the report says.

Desalination also has raised concerns about greenhouse gases because it uses large amounts of energy. Seawater reverse osmosis uses about 10 times more energy than traditional treatment of surface water, for example, and in most cases uses more energy than other ways of augmenting water supplies. Researchers should investigate ways to integrate alternative energy sources — such as the sun, wind, or tides — in order to lower emissions from desalination, the report says.

Read the rest of this article from Science Daily, which has a lot of useful links for more information, by clicking here.

April 28, 2008 · Filed Under Desalination

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