Kevin Drum tags this today. Have not read much on it. Are some of our science types more informed. Aquifers around the world are being drained at an alarming speed. Here's what that looks like in two of the biggest aquifers in the US: Red dots are bad (more than one meter per year of water loss). This is from a recent paper that examines 1,693 aquifers around the world: Rapid groundwater-level declines are widespread in the twenty-first century, especially in dry regions with extensive croplands. Critically, we also show that groundwater-level declines have accelerated over the past four decades in 30% of the world’s regional aquifers. When we have unlimited cheap fusion we'll be able to desalinate and pump water anywhere we want. But that's probably a ways off. In the meantime, maybe we should stop sticking our heads in the sand and face reality? We are running out of water - Kevin Drum
We can run desal on solar/wind/battery too. Production can vary to absorb more energy, push more through filters at higher pressures when power is available..storage tanks downstream to accommodate the surges in production volumes. Indoor vertical farming. Uses 5% of the water vs field grown crops. 1 acre building equates to 60 acres fields. CO 2 sinks. Coming to a field near me, from Finland, soon. If they work as projected in warm weather climates, it brings production closer to population centers and deccreases waste and transport costs and related carbon footprint
Always a way, just a matter of cost. There is plenty of water, just not plenty of cheap water. Desal methods are getting better, hopefully something fundamentally different than a better filter is put there.
Read years ago that graphene could reduce desal to 10% of current cost. Haven't heard anything about it since. I expect they can't produce it to scale.
Cali should take more advantage of their solar radiation availability. Photovoltaic powered RO systems are still the most energy efficient. Im sure they know this. What was that term, cheap water? If it’s not a problem, then they won’t deal with it. Rationing won’t work so they’ll have to think harder and open the pocket book. Other options anyone?
All that water we take out of the ground eventually has to end up in the oceans, thus explaining sea level rise.
all that cheap water stored up in the mountains and at Hetch Hetchy making cheap electricity for them. solar and desal is a no brainer, just need a more beneficial use for the brine discharge
we, and our cattle, consume a lot of that water in what we eat and lots of it evaporates and turns into rain which can help refill the aquifers
Exactly the problem with desalination. It takes even more energy ($$) to pump it back into the ocean after diluting it! Evap ponds work if you have space and lots of time…There’s somebody working on a solution. In the end it’s about politicians and the wrong kind of power. From (2019) Turning desalination waste into a useful resource
even better. if it works...still doesn't say wha tthey do with the carbon infused brine when done, likely deep well injection, which is very expensive Can carbon capture solve desalination’s waste problem? | Grist But a new startup called Capture6 claims it can solve desalination’s controversial brine problem with another controversial climate technology: carbon capture. The company announced new plans this week to build a carbon-capture facility in South Korea that will work in tandem with a nearby desalination plant, sucking carbon dioxide out of the air and storing it in desalination brine, which it will import from the plant. But that’s not all. Capture6 also claims it can wring new fresh water out of the brine, bolstering the company’s sustainability claims — and its potential profit — even further. If it works, this facility will deliver a triple benefit. It will decrease the concentration of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, create a new source of fresh water, and limit the polluting effects of desalination. But that’s still a very big “if.” .............................. The newly announced venture in South Korea, known as Project Octopus, takes the process one step further. The facility will be located at the Daesan Industrial Complex, an oil and gas industrial park in a region of the country that has suffered from water shortages due to an ongoing drought. The Korean state water utility, K-water, is building a seawater desalination plant at the industrial park to provide water to the oil and gas plants, which use thousands of gallons of water to cool down their machinery as it operates. The Capture6 facility will use the brine created by K-water’s desalination plant to capture carbon dioxide, and it will also use the modified brine to extract even more fresh water that the oil and gas plants can then use in lieu of pumping from less sustainable sources. Carbon6 also says that the solvent produced by its direct-air capture operations can then be used for additional point-source carbon capture at the nearby oil and gas plants, providing a double emissions benefit before the company buries all the carbon deep underwater. In other words, Capture6 will use the byproduct of water production to create even more water, and it will use the byproduct of capturing carbon to capture more carbon.
Very interesting! Almost sounds made up, like reducing carbon emissions. Maybe compared to other methods? When you have multiple industries in close proximity, you can share resources and byproducts. Hope it works.
I recently learned it takes nearly 2000 gallons of water to grow a pound of almonds. That is crazy... and Cali is growing around 3 billion pounds per year. That means almonds ... in Cali alone ... account for 6 trillion gallons of water used per year. That is just mind boggling.
The Grand Mesa, largest mesa in the world typically receives more than 300 accumulated inches of snow a year, October through April. The accumulation from this past October through today is 171". Snowfall records indicate it is more than 20% down to date.
It was epic. Went up there during the thaw and observed mountains of snow starting to melt. Streams and creeks were raging and hundreds of thousands of tiny rivulets of water were percolating out of creek banks and the banks lining roads running across the Mesa. It looked as though the ground was sweating.
Last winter 13 of 15 ski resorts in Utah broke records. Brighton, the only one I’ve been to, got more than double their normal with over 830”. Snowbird in Alta got over 900”. We weren’t allowed up to Alta in mid-May due to avalanche danger closing the roads. Hated not getting up to the Alta town hall bird feeder for some easy montane birding. Was glad, however, that the Great Salt Lake would get more runoff than usual that summer since it is drying up. Here’s hoping for several more years of excess precipitation or the lake’s level won’t rise. (wink, wink for Enviro; I’m an environmental engineer and understand the hydrologic cycle and was kidding about sea level and aquifer drawdown earlier)
They need more epic years out there! Interlodge declarations in Cottonwood Canyon lasted late into the year last year (mid-May). That’s when folks already up the canyon are restricted to buildings and the roads are closed to allow avalanche clean up and prevention, as I learned only last year. When we went up the canyon last fall there were numerous obvious areas of trees downed and all pointing downhill due to avalanches. Reminded me of pine forests near Panama City after Hurricane Michael, except there were miles of downed trees in PC pointing in the same direction and the devastation near Alta was generally limited to less than a football field wide.
I recently learned 80% of the world’s almonds come from California. You’d think the Almond King could shit some profits and help fixxy? IDK….That’s a lot of nuts to make fake milk.
