Why doesn Virginia Beach do the same thing?
These communities are not desalting seawater, they are desalting brackish groundwater. There is a big difference. Brackish groundwater is groundwater that is generally less than ten times too salty to drink (500 to 5000 milligrams per liter [mg/l] of salt). Seawater is 100 to 200 times too salty to drink (35,000 mg/l of salt). Furthermore, brackish groundwater requires far less pre-treatment before it is desalted. Why doesn’t Virginia Beach desalt brackish groundwater? Virginia Beach studied the feasibility of desalting brackish groundwater from deep wells screened in the cretaceous aquifer. However, the availability of brackish groundwater in Virginia Beach is almost as limited as the availability of fresh groundwater. The amount of brackish groundwater that the City could develop without causing adverse groundwater impacts in southeast Virginia and saltwater intrusion is very limited. Are not the costs of desalting decreasing as new technologies are developing and shouldn’t the City
