   |  | | Our oceans could be a water source. Is the cost too steep? | By Mike Magee, MD
In 1992, The International Conference on Water and the Environment generated the Dublin Statement. This highly controversial proclamation on water, a unique and complex resource that is both finite and inequitably distributed, read in part that “It is vital to recognize the basic right of all human beings to have access to clean water and sanitation at an affordable cost.” But it also added that “Water is an economic value in all its competing uses and should be recognized as an economic competing good.”1
At the 1998 Expert Group Meeting for the United Nations Commission for Sustainable Development, certain principles on water were confirmed. These included:
- Economics – water planning and management must be integrated into the economy;
- Allocation – since water is finite and vulnerable, analysis of costs and benefits of different allocations should drive these discussions;
- Accountability – efficient, transparent responsibility for water management must be assigned, monitored and evaluated;
- Cost Recovery – all costs must be covered by 2015 to assure access and sustainability, subsidies may be required and should be transparent;
- Financing – new financial resources must be marshaled to access water supplies and maximize efficient use of technology to address poverty and, the projected new demands for water.2
Now, if you think that these directives apply only to developing nations around the world, think again. Increasingly, water issues are a real and urgent issue in the United States, and the challenges are increasing, not decreasing.3 As a case in point, consider the fact that in California, seekers of water now have their eyes focused westward -- toward the Pacific Ocean -- not eastward.4 In late 2007 regulatory approval was granted to a Connecticut-based firm to construct a $300 million dollar water-desalination plant near San Diego, California that would produce 50 million gallons of water and supply 100,000 homes in the region.5 And California is considering some 20 other proposed desalination projects for the immediate future, which, if approved would contribute one sixth of all the state’s water. Such a move is not without controversy, but more on that in a moment.6,7
Removing salt from seawater to supply fresh water needs is a common practice in the arid and oil rich Middle East. In fact, there are more than 13,000 desalination plants worldwide producing over 12 billion gallons of fresh water a day.4 The seawater is pumped into a pretreatment filtering system to remove coarse particles, including sand, sediment and vegetation. The pretreated water is then forced through dense semi-permeable membranes at high pressures in a process called reverse osmosis. This separates the salt and other minerals from the water. The resultant semi-solid brine is discharged back into the ocean and the water is collected and stored in a reservoir or containment system for future use. The process traditionally has consumed a large amount of electricity -- over $2 dollars in electricity costs per 1,000 gallons produced in the past. And that’s after you build the plants -- which don’t come cheap. A plant in Tampa Bay, Florida that was estimated to cost $110 million dollars in 1999 to construct had a final price tag of $158 million, bumping the cost of an acre-foot -- roughly 325,000 gallons of water --from an estimated $677 dollars to $1,100 dollars.4,8
Overruns like these have made municipalities cautious in the past. But as surface and ground water options have disappeared or become prohibitively expensive, desalination is getting a fresh new look. This is in part because the technology has improved. For one thing, new membranes and pumping systems consume less electricity, down to close to $1 per 1,000 gallons from the previous cost of $2 per 1,000 gallons. And large companies such as GE and Citigroup have weighed in.4,9 Both GE and Citigroup are partners in the private Connecticut firm, Poseidon, in the California project. The plant has not yet broken ground, but the water is already committed. Poseidon has signed 30-year contracts with nine local water districts, and plans to price the water at $950 an acre-foot. The municipalities currently pay $700 per acre-foot for their surface and groundwater-fed supply. To some local leaders, that seems like a deal. As one said: “We have to get our water from somewhere, and it's going to be the Pacific Ocean.”4
Not everyone is so comfortable. Poseidon's last U.S. venture in Tampa Bay, Florida became mired in controversies and cost overruns. It was eventually bought out by the government and is being run by firms from Germany and Spain.4,8 As Peter Gleick from the Pacific Institute said: "What people claim is always a little different." 4 As for the environment, the concerns include energy consumption with resultant carbon footprint and possible negative impacts on marine life.10 The Pacific Institute had this to say in a recent report on the subject: "The potential benefits of ocean desalination are great, but the economic, cultural, and environmental costs of wide commercialization remain high. In many parts of the world, alternatives can provide the same fresh water benefits of ocean desalination at far lower economic and environmental costs. These alternatives include treating low-quality local water sources, encouraging regional water transfers, improving conservation and efficiency, accelerating waste water recycling and reuse, and implementing smart land-use planning."7 Such concerns do not seem to be deterring state officials, including the California Secretary of Water Resources, who recently said: "We're excited about the prospects."4,11 The National Academy of Sciences is about to weigh in with an anxiously awaited report on the role of desalinization in meeting U.S. water needs.12
Stay tuned.
References:
1. Dublin Statement. 1992. Official outcome of the International Conference on Water and the Environment: Development Issues for the 21st Century, 26–31 January 1992, Dublin. Geneva, World Meteorological Organization.
2. United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development: Sixth Session. 1998.
3. Carlton J. Cities Spend Millions on Land to Protect Water. The Wall Street Journal. 4 January 2006. B6.
4. Kranhold, K. Water, Water, Everywhere... Wall Street Journal, B1. 17 January 2008.
5. Carlsbad Desalinization Project. Poseidon Resources Corp. 2008.
6. Keene, C. Water Desalinization Taskforce. California Department of Water Resources. 2003.
7. Cooley H, Gleick PH, Wolff, G. Desalinization With A Grain Of Salt. Pacific Institute. June, 2006.
8. Tampa Bay Sea Water Desalination Plant, Florida, USA. Water-Technology.net.
9. GE makes critical investment in sourthern California seawater desalination project. General Electric Press Release. 24 May 2007.
10. Geever J. Poseidon's Desalinization Design a Decade Late. VoiceofSanDiego.org. 15 October 2007.
11. Drinking Water Quality and Other Public Health Issues. California Department of Water Quality. 21 August 2003.
12. Advancing Desalination Technologies. National Academy of Sciences. 2006-2007.
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