Commentary: California should create more water -- much more

[hunter]

12. Burning natural gas to desalinate water is insane.

Fossil fuels cause the droughts that make more desalinization necessary. It's a vicious circle.

Furthermore, the environmental impacts of desalinization are not negligible.

I happen to live in a place that recycles wastewater into potable water which is used mostly for agriculture. Some of this water is further refined into tap water. Expansion of desalinization projects here is generally opposed, often for fear it will lead to more development.

Desalinated water is affordable for household use (heating water costs more...) but too expensive for all but the most specialized sorts of farming. Realistically only the cannabis growers could afford it.

Eventually inland Colorado River water users will be paying coastal users for their water rights. I can easily imagine Arizona exporting electricity to California coastal cities to desalinate sea water in exchange for the Colorado River water these coastal cities currently use.

Ideally, for the sake of the natural environment, the energy required to desalinate water (about 3 kWh/m³) would come from nuclear power plants.

Intermittent power supplies such as solar or wind energy substantially increase both the dollar cost and material cost of desalinization. Desalinization is most efficient as a continuous process.