Conservation and desalination
An environmental group claims that California’s attempts to turn seawater into drinking water are premature.
Desalination is an extremely expensive way to produce drinking water, according to a year-long analysis by the Pacific Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, of 21 projects either proposed or already under way in California.
In Desalination, with a Grain of Salt, the institute contends that most, if not all, of California’s current desalination projects “fail to adequately address economic realities, environmental concerns, or potential social impacts. . . . Even the cheapest estimates exceed the costs of conservation and efficiency improvements, fixing leaks, and other sources of new supply.”
Desalination is relatively expensive to begin with, the report explains. Electricity accounts for 44% of the typical costs of producing drinking water with plants that use reverse-osmosis technology to remove the salts from seawater. Such steep energy requirements leave consumers vulnerable to any future increases in electricity prices. For example, an energy rate hike of 25% pushes up water prices by 11%.
“Energy price uncertainty creates costs that are ultimately paid by water users, but project cost estimates often omit such considerations,” the report charges. Additionally, desalination can have environmental consequences. “The discharge of the highly salty waste brine—which is often laced with processing chemicals and toxic metals—can harm local fish populations and accumulate in the food chain,” the report points out, adding that marine organisms can also be killed by the equipment itself.
