By Cassie Walker •
October 2, 2008
With the driest year on record still visible in our review mirror (at least for now) it makes sense that people in Los Angeles and Orange Counties are concerned about their water supply. Meant to measure support for a proposed Huntington Beach desalination facility, a recent poll shows just how concerned they are.
Of the 500 Orange County voters surveyed, only 6.8% believe that there is enough water to supply the county’s needs. Compare that to the 41.2% that realize that there is a water shortage, and that officials need to find new sources of water, pronto. 46% replied that OC has enough for now, but will need to tap more sources to meet future needs.
The survey, sponsored by the Orange County Business Council and the LA/Orange County Building Trades Council, goes on to show that:
- 33% would support seawater desalination as a means of ensuring adequate water supplies
- 31% would support conservation measures as a means of ensuring adequate water supplies
- 12% would support recycled or treated “waste” water
That last one is funny, since they already have a water recycling program. It’s not exactly “toilet to tap” as nay-sayers call it, because the water is purified, then pumped back underground to replenish aquifers. Mother Nature purifies it further, at which point it reenters the fresh water supply and is sent to homes. Disgusting, right? Of course not.
By Joshua S Hill •
September 25, 2008
Local Indian governmental officials have announced that a new 100-million liter per day desalination plant is nearing completion. Located on India’s southeastern coast, the plant is currently 80% complete, and expected to begin operations January 2009.
The plant will process a hundred million liters per day, the equivalent to 26-million US gallons.
By Joshua S Hill •
September 5, 2008
One of the major sticking points in Australian politics has often centered on the growing need for desalination plants across the country. Reports are widespread, both nationally and internationally, about the worsening drought conditions in the country. So there’s no surprise that we need to do something, but just what has long been a point of contention.
Nonetheless, there are a few desal plants cropping up, and the latest one, on Australia’s Gold Coast, is nearing completion.
By Joe Mohr •
June 9, 2008
I last posted on the Seawater Greenhouse in February. After writing that post I felt hopeful that this type of desalination plant would catch on, yet pessimistic that, based on the pictures I saw, it would neither reach the necessary scale to create enough clean water nor attract the type of investors needed to take this plant to the next level.
I’m very happy to find out that I was wrong.
I researched the Seawater Greenhouse again to look for breaking news because I decided back in February that I needed to post on this on a regular basis to spread the word on the technology. By the looks of the Seawater Greenhouse Inventor Charles Paton’s latest project, my effort will not be needed.
Just as the Prius will replace the Hummer on our nation’s roads, the Teatro del Agua shall replace the energy intensive desalination plants of old, worldwide. All the while supplying said world with an endless supply of water and creating an outdoor venue for theatrical performances. Afterall, you can’t spell WATER without A-R-T. (below average pun–my apologies)
The new Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, repealed a legal challenge launched by the city’s former mayor and gave the go-ahead for the construction of a desalination plant last week.
Thames Water Utilities will now be allowed to continue building a plant on the north bank of the Thames River in the London Borough of Newham and begin construction of another plant in Beckton, East London.
“Today’s news is a victory for common sense,” stated Thames Water CEO David Owens in a press release. “The desalination plant is a vital part of our response to this situation, and we are committed to getting it built as quickly as possible, so it is available to provide more safe, clean drinking water to Londoners by 2010.”
By Joe Mohr •
March 8, 2008
As populations grow and the amount of clean, fresh water decreases, we are increasingly motivated to find new ways of creating/capturing and using fresh water. Of course, we could all begin by using less water (see footnote). According to the United Nations Development Program in a chart I found on www.data360.org, as of 2006, the average American uses approximately 151 gallons of water/day. That includes, drinking, showering, flushing, cleaning, cooking, irrigating, etc. I propose that if we were each given 25 gallons of water to use per day we’d be OK. But, water isn’t dropped off at your doorstep by the water man, so we are not inclined to think much about our consumption (until something drastic occurs, like the droughts the Atlanta area faced this past summer). Then, how can people get more of what they are all using way too much of without drawing from other overused freshwater sources? An increasingly viable option is to take the salt out of the ocean’s roughly 315 million trillion gallons of saltwater. I posted last month on a low-energy solar desalination plant, so it’d be neglectful of me not to point out this no energy windmill desalination system as well.
In the Netherlands, at the Delft University of Technology, a traditional windmill is being tested to drive seawater through a reverse-osmosis membrane, thus directly producing freshwater from seawater. On their website, www.drinkingwiththewind.nl they share the following:
On the basis of the windmill’s capacity at varying wind speeds, it is estimated that it will produce 5 to 10 m3 (1,321-2,642 U.S. gallons) of fresh water per day: enough drinking water for a small village of 500 inhabitants. A water reservoir will have to ensure that enough water is available for a calm period lasting up to five days.
By Joe Mohr •
February 16, 2008
Three-hundred twenty-six million trillion! It sounds like a number I would come up with as a kid, say, in reference to the number of things I find disgusting about my sister, or the number of reasons I need a new bike, or the number of mosquito bites I got on a weekend camping trip. But, it turns out, 326 million trillion is a real number. It happens to be (approximately—because who could count them all?) the number of gallons of water on our wonderful planet (Earth). That’s an overwhelming, impressive and — when you learn that 98% of that water is ocean water, and therefore too salty to consume, or use for irrigation — frustrating figure!
In these times where climate chaos has caused more frequent severe droughts, and our population continues to grow (read: consume water) at an awesome rate, people are becoming more and more concerned with water conservation. Humanity finds itself increasingly at a loss for freshwater while roughly 315 million trillion gallons of unusable seawater taunts us from our shores.
Sure, desalination plants are becoming more common. They are very expensive, however, and so energy intensive that they only further contribute to the climate change they are attempting remedy (thereby, joining corn-based ethanol as the two largest non-solutions to our climate problems).
Fear not my fellow water-loving earthlings! There is an even better way to remove the salt from salt water: a Seawater Greenhouse! This UK-based company explains the process as one that:
uses seawater to cool and humidify the air that ventilates the greenhouse and sunlight to distill fresh water from seawater. This enables the year round cultivation of high value crops that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to grow in hot, arid (conditions).
How do we meet the world’s future energy demands? Not an easy question, but it gets even more complicated when you factor in another critical need: water.
While water hasn’t always been factored into energy discussions — or vice versa — the two are “inextricably linked,” according to Sandia National Laboratories. That’s why researchers there are working [...]
With the driest year on record still visible in our review mirror (at least for now) it makes sense that people in Los Angeles and Orange Counties are concerned about their water supply. Meant to measure support for a proposed Huntington Beach desalination facility, a recent poll shows just how concerned they are.
