What are the key issues raised by the use of desalinated water in California?
The technology for ocean and brackish-water desalination works. In fact, there are a number of different technologies in use around the world. So the question is not about technology. In California the principal technology being considered for desalination is reverse-osmosis (RO) in which water is driven through a membrane at high pressure to separate the salts from the potable water. All of the different desalination technologies are expensive relative to water supplies that we are used to—surface diversions and groundwater extraction. But some of the existing so-called “conventional” systems are not without significant costs as well. Ocean desal, and certainly brackish-water desal, are becoming more competitive in the marketplace. The overarching point is that all water supplies have economic and environmental costs and tradeoffs. We’re at a stage now of giving more serious consideration to these costs, both environmental and economic, for all water supplies. In my view, that’s a hel
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