Peter Gleick on desalination: Salt from water, money from pockets?

From Peter Gleick’s City Brights blog:

There is always a lot of interest in desalination. I hear it when I give public talks on global and local water issues; I see it in some responses to my blog posts that believe desalination should be much more aggressively pursued; and it is evident in the response to a report the Institute prepared on the pros and cons of desalination. This report has been the single most downloaded report we’ve ever produced, downloaded from our website more than 303,000 times since publication in June 2006. Actually 303,448 as of today. That is a stunning expression of interest.

I also love the idea of desalination, for all of the obvious reasons. It turns a vast unusable source of salty water into high-quality fresh water. It is potentially drought-proof because it does not depend on the vagaries of weather and climate. It offers the opportunity to reduce human devastation of natural aquatic ecosystems if we use desalination to reduce our over-allocation and over-use of other freshwater resources.

But I’m not a blind supporter. Desalination is one of many water solutions in a broad portfolio of options, and it must be considered – in an equal manner – with all of the other choices we have. If it passes economic/financial, environmental, social, and political muster – fantastic. But there are many supporters of desalination who see its advantages but somehow fail to recognize or acknowledge its liabilities. That brings me to today’s Water Number:

Water Number: $2000 per acre-foot (AF). This is the latest estimate just released for the cost of water from a massive proposed desalination facility for the Camp Pendleton area in Southern California.

Read more from Peter Gleick’s City Brights blog by clicking here.

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