Water, Desalinated

So the world is covered in water – at least 75% of it is. And of all that water, 97% is in the oceans – saline – undrinkable and hardly usable except for growing fish, clams, oysters, mussels, mollusks, octopi and all the other things we are used to seeing grow in water.

The balance of 3% is considered “fresh water,” and this category is broken into subgroups such as Ground Water, Icecaps, Glaciers, Lakes, Swamp Water, Rivers and Atmosphere.
What all this boils down to is the hard fact that of all the water on earth only 1% is actually usable by humans.

Now it would seem that one of the major, if not the one essential effort being made to obtain clean water would be to work on extracting the priceless product from all that seawater surrounding us.

Unfortunately there are several conflicting arguments regarding the safety and feasibility of cleaning up ocean water. We will study the “anti” positions today and in our next issue we will set forth a program that might be the desired answer.

Some argue that since “enormous amounts of energy” are needed to force ocean water through the membrane filters at high pressure, there could be an increase in emissions adding to the global warming problem. They further argue that the facilities required would have the potential to induce “urban sprawl which could mean increased air pollution from car commuters.”

They further argue that along the coasts fisheries and marine environments “will be threatened.” They compare the desalination plants to the “once-through intake structures” that use ocean water to cool conventional power plants.

The other point they stress is that desalination is much more expensive than the cost to produce water from traditional supplies. Some say three or more times more expensive.

All of these statements are presented today in the spirit of offering a fair viewing of opposing positions on a vital subject affecting the entire world.

While regular readers will understand that our purpose, even mission, is to promote the development of hydropower, we will next show that there are some realistic and fascinating answers to the worries about desalination that can contribute safe clean water in some very needy locations.