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Title: Desalination and the Quest for Water Self-Sufficiency: Author: Andrew Casmir Rose Abstract: California, as with the rest of the American
Southwest, has a voracious appetite for water. The Colorado River provides the bulk of
this water, with the remainder made up by various other rivers and the
removal of groundwater. This is an
unsustainable set-up. Population
growth is outpacing the ability of the catchments and rivers to supply the
urban centers and agricultural land, as well as the recharge rates of the
area’s aquifers. The most dramatic
result of this over-reliance on groundwater is the subsidence of the San
Joaquin Valley. At the time of the
last comprehensive subsidence survey, the greatest subsidence was in excess
of 28 feet. The profusion of dams for
hydroelectric power and reservoir creation has damaged entire fish stocks and
destroyed one of Nature’s greatest wonders at Glen Canyon. Further damming of the rivers is not an
option, nor is continued reliance on groundwater pumping. When this data is combined with
California’s population growth and the decline in the Colorado River’s annual
flow, it becomes clear that new source of water is needed. Desalination, the process of turning
salt-or-brackish water to freshwater, offers a possible solution. Despite this, the process has not been
employed or heavily explored for the southwest with one disastrous
exception. This paper attempts to
explain this using a variety of cultural, political, and numerical
information on the Southwest and three largely arid, coastal countries that
have implemented desalination. This
paper finds that the other countries (Saudi Arabia, Australia, and Israel)
either have no other options, had an authoritarian force behind the drive for
desalination, a strong national consensus, or some combination thereof which
is lacking in the American Southwest.
In addition, the failure and near-failure of two commercial American
desalination plants has in all likelihood decreased confidence in
desalination projects. Key References: Gleick, P. H., Cooley, H., & Katz, D. (2008).
The World's Water, 2006-2007; the biennial report on freshwater resources.
Washington, D.C.: Island Press. Chanan, A., Kandasamy,
J., Vigneswaran, S., & Sharma, D. (2009). A
gradualist approach to address Australia's urban water challenge. Desalination , 1012-1016. El Saliby,
I., Okour, Y., Shon, H.
K., Kandasamy, J., & Kim, I. S. (2009).
Desalination plants in Australia, review and facts. Desalination
, 1-14. Elhadj, E. (2004). Household ware and sanitation
services in Saudi Arabia: an analysis of economic, political and ecological
issues. London: University of London. Ministry of National Infrastructure.
(2002, August). Israel's Water Economy-Thinking of future generations.
Retrieved March 26, 2010, from Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2002/8/Israel-s%20Water%20Economy%20-%20Thinking%20of%20future%20genera Return to Water
Resources Projects page. |
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Date:
May 2010
Student: acrose@willamette.edu
ENVR 327: Water Resources
Instructor: Dr. Karen Arabas
http://www.willamette.edu/~karabas/courses/envr327w