California adopts environmental rules and guidelines for desalination
Tapping the ocean for drinking water: State lays down the law
By Peter Fimrite Updated 7:55 am, Thursday, May 7, 2015
California adopted new rules Wednesday to help cities and water agencies figure out the best way to siphon water from the sea and turn it into drinking water without killing fish.
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Desalination plants have the obvious attraction of tapping a limitless source of water, the ocean. Critics warn, however, that the plants kill fish as they suck in briny water, and spew greenhouse gases into the air from the energy they require to run.
The state’s new rules seek to deal with some of those issues by requiring desalination plants to use subsurface intakes when possible, meaning seawater can be drawn in only from below the seabed. If open ocean intakes are necessary, they must have screens to keep from killing fish and other sea creatures.
Operators will have to use treated wastewater to dilute the salty brine that the desalination plants discharge after producing fresh water. If that is not possible, operators must place a device that rapidly mixes the brine with seawater at the end of the outfall. The salinity in the area near the outfall cannot increase by more than 2 parts per 1,000.
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“It's not a panacea,” Bishop said. “You wouldn't think about replacing our water project with desalination, but there are communities along the coast that have very few options and they need to look at everything.”
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Tapping-the-ocean-for-drinking-water-State-lays-6247262.php
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But as long as there are options available right now that reduce use, we must deploy those.
It's like the California Solar Initiative: You don't get the rebate for solar photovoltaic until you have an energy audit and can show that you've taken the right efficiency measures.
I'm fighting a developer right now in a place where there is no water, none, and the county board is going to let them build anyway based on empty promises with no requirement to perform.
The county wants the revenue. They are a progressive county but want the revenue. And there is no water and the traffic infrastructure cannot take the new load, but they build anyway.
Communities like Cambria, CA, have had a water shortage for quite a while and they did a smart thing.
No more water meters. It's a beautiful coastal town where, if you want to build you need to buy a property with a meter.
You can build somewhere else if you abandon that meter, but no new customers.
Smart growth.
Commercial scale desal plants have three problems beyond the HUGE energy draw and their polluting outflows:
A: They will encourage continued population growth and development.
B: Their high capital cost may lead to greater privatization of water utilities, we do NOT want that.
C: Their implementation will delay doing the right things:
Meter all use;
Tiered rates for water use;
Building codes to include greywater systems and rainwater catchment;
Mandatory limits on outdoor water use.
Water efficient ag techniques need to be more widely deployed.
I could go on. Like anything else we simply need to look to other more enlightened societies to see how to behave.
It's not that hard to reduce use to meet supply.
Commercial scale desal plants have three problems beyond the HUGE energy draw and their polluting outflows:
A: They will encourage continued population growth and development.
B: Their high capital cost may lead to greater privatization of water utilities, we do NOT want that.
C: Their implementation will delay doing the right things:
Meter all use;
Tiered rates for water use;
Building codes to include greywater systems and rainwater catchment;
Mandatory limits on outdoor water use.
Water efficient ag techniques need to be more widely deployed.
I could go on. Like anything else we simply need to look to other more enlightened societies to see how to behave.
This is not the first time drought has impacted a human population.
There is still water here, and there are still businesses and citizens wasting it.
There are still users who pay a flat rate without any incentive to use less.
There are still people who insist on three showers a day because they go to the gym or some stupid reason.
There are still water wasting golf courses.
It ain't rocket science, how to solve this water shortage.
Don't even start with me on a topic that is within my scope as a professional engineer.
Within our means if you don't mind paying private companies 10x what you pay now and polluting the environment and using tons more energy from, likely, fossil fuels.
Do you care about these thing, even a little?
Commercial scale desal plants have three problems beyond the HUGE energy draw and their polluting outflows:
A: They will encourage continued population growth and development.
B: Their high capital cost may lead to greater privatization of water utilities, we do NOT want that.
C: Their implementation will delay doing the right things:
Meter all use;
Tiered rates for water use;
Building codes to include greywater systems and rainwater catchment;
Mandatory limits on outdoor water use.
Water efficient ag techniques need to be more widely deployed.
I could go on. Like anything else we simply need to look to other more enlightened societies to see how to behave.
Water and air and a clean environment are civil and human rights, CreekDog.
The irresistible forces has met the immovable object.
The only way to have all three is to find and fine the wasters.
Some folks are using other peoples' water and that needs to stop.
Easy peasey, my good friend.
You can have new freeways, or we can have more public transit.
We can add desal plants and pretend they don't have an impact, or we can use what we have more wisely.
Commercial scale desal plants have three problems beyond the HUGE energy draw and their polluting outflows:
A: They will encourage continued population growth and development.
B: Their high capital cost may lead to greater privatization of water utilities, we do NOT want that.
C: Their implementation will delay doing the right things:
Meter all use;
Tiered rates for water use;
Building codes to include greywater systems and rainwater catchment;
Mandatory limits on outdoor water use.
Water efficient ag techniques need to be more widely deployed.
I could go on. Like anything else we simply need to look to other more enlightened societies to see how to behave.
I think desalination plants on a mass scale are a big mistake, but limited and heavily regulated seems appropriate if circumstances warrant it.
And I never said that it was a desert.
Where do you get this stuff? Hey, check out my new wheels!
We need snow in the mountains to stop the bark beetles from killing the trees. As I've looked back at old photos of where I grew up in Simi Valley Ca. In the 40's and 50's they had more snow in the hills and streets. I lived there in the 60's and just remember maybe 3 days throughout my time there it snowed. It wouldn't snow all the time, and when it did it wasn't much. Then I remember in my teens visiting Big Bear, and in those days you had to worry if the road would be open to go skiing. Now you have to worry if there will be snow on the hills to ski. And now I live near Yosemite, and there is no snow up there. I'm thinking maybe Ca is done with snow, and if that's the case we're so screwed. Maybe use some of this desal water to fill lakes and rivers. Maybe that will bring back the rain and snow clouds we need so bad.
Once the trees are dead, it's going to be a desert once again.
Rocketdyne in 1957. This place would always be testing rocket engines and the whole town would rumble, but that is the surrounding Mountains in Simi. I've never seen those mountains with snow that I could remember.
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