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I would like to discuss the ways, means and whys of building desalinization plants, powered by nukes or not, in New Mexico and elsewhere in the southwest.
What are you going to desalinate? New Mexico isn't near any ocean the last time I checked. There are some underground pools of brackish water, but just like most other acquifers in the West, they are usually non-recharging "ancient" water that a well basically "mines out." In other words: non-renewable.
Here's a radical idea: Maybe people should actually be living where surface water supplies are adequate to support them. Would that limit or stop population growth in much of the West? Yes, but that makes a whole lot more sense that trying to make the West into something that it's not, and--in true practicality--never could be on a sustained basis. Desalinization makes about as much sense as trying to power a 10 mpg SUV with, uh, corn. Waste of resources and money.
Desal. is already underway here with brackish groundwater.
A bit of the article in Water and Wastes Digest:
El Paso to Dedicate ‘World’s Largest Inland Desalination Plant’
August 3, 2007
El Paso Water Utilities will dedicate the Kay Bailey Hutchison Desalination Plant on Aug. 8, 2007. The $87 million facility produces 27.5 million gallons of water per day, making it the largest inland desalination plant in the world.
The desalination plant is a joint project of El Paso Water Utilities and the U.S. Army/Fort Bliss. It produces potable water by treating a previously unusable resource – brackish groundwater from the Hueco Bolson Aquifer........................................... ..
El Paso to Dedicate ‘World’s Largest Inland Desalination Plant’ (http://www.wwdmag.com/El-Paso-to-Dedicate-Worlds-Largest-Inland-Desalination-Plant-NewsPiece14116 - broken link)
Desal. is already underway here with brackish groundwater.
A bit of the article in Water and Wastes Digest:
El Paso to Dedicate ‘World’s Largest Inland Desalination Plant’
August 3, 2007
El Paso Water Utilities will dedicate the Kay Bailey Hutchison Desalination Plant on Aug. 8, 2007. The $87 million facility produces 27.5 million gallons of water per day, making it the largest inland desalination plant in the world.
The desalination plant is a joint project of El Paso Water Utilities and the U.S. Army/Fort Bliss. It produces potable water by treating a previously unusable resource – brackish groundwater from the Hueco Bolson Aquifer........................................... ..
El Paso to Dedicate ‘World’s Largest Inland Desalination Plant’ (http://www.wwdmag.com/El-Paso-to-Dedicate-Worlds-Largest-Inland-Desalination-Plant-NewsPiece14116 - broken link)
It would be real interesting to see how much federal $$$ is being spent to operate the plant. I'll bet the cost to taxpayers is something to see, and probably is not being paid by the ratepayers, especially since it sounds like a good chunk of the water is going to a military base. Do I smell "pork" here?
All major projects are served with barbaque sauce. I wonder if the water is going into the El Paso domestic distribution, Rio Grande agriculture or the Military base.
What are you going to desalinate? New Mexico isn't near any ocean the last time I checked. There are some underground pools of brackish water, but just like most other acquifers in the West, they are usually non-recharging "ancient" water that a well basically "mines out." In other words: non-renewable.
Here's a radical idea: Maybe people should actually be living where surface water supplies are adequate to support them. Would that limit or stop population growth in much of the West? Yes, but that makes a whole lot more sense that trying to make the West into something that it's not, and--in true practicality--never could be on a sustained basis. Desalinization makes about as much sense as trying to power a 10 mpg SUV with, uh, corn. Waste of resources and money.
Desalination make perfect sense. You've heard of the Alaskan pipeline no doubt? Why not move to where the oil is... It's really feasible to do, Saudia Arabia and a host of other countries in the Middle East do it, why not in NM?
All major projects are served with barbaque sauce. I wonder if the water is going into the El Paso domestic distribution, Rio Grande agriculture or the Military base.
BTW - last I checked El Paso is in TEXAS.
Touchy, touchy, Greg.....this thing is practically at the NM border.
They're tapping the same brackish aquifer that any southern or southeastern NM plant would be using, it's the largest of it's kind, it's brand new, state of the art, so I think it's as relevant as a reference point for anything that might be contemplated in NM. If I read the details of the article correctly, this water will serve as drinking water for Bliss and for El Paso. They say it's production is approx. 25% of El Paso's use.
I doubt there's any way that desal. for agriculture makes even a hint of economic sense, but that's never stopped a Federal project .
I goggled an article on the project. It uses an otherwise unusable resource and disposes of the waste in a economically sound manner. I wonder why the salt recovered if the waste was evaporated has no value. I also wonder how much electric power the pumps forcing the brine through the semi-permiable membranes consume.
Desalination make perfect sense. You've heard of the Alaskan pipeline no doubt? Why not move to where the oil is... It's really feasible to do, Saudia Arabia and a host of other countries in the Middle East do it, why not in NM?
Amen Tetto, it's not like everyone lives where the food is either!
Besides, how much money do you think we taxpayers have to continually pay for people who live in areas where hurricanes are common, or where toronados and flooding are constantly wiping out infrastructure? Yes a desalinization plant might cost a lot upfront but so does rebuilding cities destroyed by all these natural disasters. So yes from a water standpoint, in makes more sense to live out east, but from a natural disaster perspective I'd say it's a wash, but that's just my two cents.
That makes more sense than the over $400 million pipeline from Ute lake to Clovis. Then it still has to be processed. If speculation that Cannon may build a reactor & sell power back to the grid happens, then this would be a perfect match.
Last edited by bodiddley; 05-02-2008 at 02:12 PM..
Reason: can't type
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