look at the bright side we are never going to run out of salt

Serving on a nuclear submarine years ago, potable water production was one of my many responsibilities. With essentially limitless energy at our disposal, we operated distillation facilities capable of producing sufficient fresh water for drinking, cooking, washing and laundry, as well as water for batteries and make-up water for the propulsion plant. After the Navy, I worked on some of the first reverse osmosis membranes, as well as RO plant design, construction and operation. With that as a background, it astounds me that, as a country, we throw potable water on the ground (a.k.a. watering the lawn). This practice would be unheard of for a large percentage of the world's population. Conservation is key. From non-water intensive lawn/landscapes and agricultural techniques, to vegetarian/vegan diets, to efficient or composting toilets, we need to be better stewards of our natural resources. Important developments that this piece missed include: • Atmospheric water generation • Grey water recycling • Waste water purification (RO without brine discharge) • Rain water and run-off reclamation (RO without brine discharge) As with climate change, there is no silver bullet. Only silver buckshot. Also, with respect to brine discharge, natural evaporation would partially eliminate other salt mining/production requirements.

In Western Australia Practically all the energy for our Desalination Plants is provided by Large Wind Turbines which are far from the city in sparsely populated areas The windiest time is in our dry summer which is also when we need the most Water

As I say, "We don't have a water shortage. We will never have water shortage. We will only struggle with how we clean it."

I'm not a chemist, but am almost certain that more focused research about desalination and filtering would have profitable results. Treating these activities as infrastructure would pay off.

This problem should have been addressed 30 to 40 years ago. Here on the west coast, the people are more worried about their property values than clean drinking water. I remember when the San Diego plant was being built, the people in the next county {Orange County} were so glad it wasn't being built in their county. Now they have a plant going up and they are not very happy with it. Personally, I feel that California could use about 8 to 10 plants along the coast.

In my opinion, the only problem is that river water is artificially cheap. This will cause some tension between inland and coastal cities feeding from the same river, since one of them doesn't have alternatives. As for the brine, it doesn't sound that difficult to solve. It's literally just concentrated seawater that you need to dilute again. There's a lot of ways to approach that from pre-mixing with seawater to mixing with (treated) waste water.

I know this may seem like an incredibly simplistic view on the topic but if thermal desalination is the process of boiling and capturing steam for purification. Then, couldn’t you theoretically utilize this steam for energy production? If you combined processes you could reduce infrastructure cost and product costs. Instead of fighting over fossil fuels as much as everyone is. Maybe, we should be enforcing policies relating to mandating water resources

CNBC really upping their KZfaq game

When the documentary lands you more questions than answers.

I do believe desalination is the key to solving many problems. Although I would rather see the water and salt separate completely in this process and at least some of that salt dumped somewhere environmentally safe to reduce the effects that brine would have on our oceans. More costly, but also healthier. I'm sure with more energy advancements, desalination will become more practical.

The problem with desalination is scale. Here in California a lot of people who apparently missed basic calculus are pro desalination plants. Leaving energy considerations out of it, the main issues are amount of water needed and amount of salt produced in the process. Ocean water is about 3% salinity. That's a lot of salt. Israel produces about 150 billion gallons of desalinated water per year. California uses about 40 billion gallons of water per day. So what Israel desalinates in a year lasts California 4 days. In the process those 4 days worth of water would produce in the neighborhood of 250 billion gallons of brine - or to put it in perspective roughly 15 million tons of pure salt. The world uses close to 300 million tons of salt per year - for all purposes from food to de-icing roads. That would mean about 20 days worth of California water consumption from desalination would produce the yearly world consumption of salt. Where do you think we're going to dump that much salt after the 20 days? By the end of the day, desalination is an option for small areas and in California for coastal cities like SD, LA or SF. It's not an option to try to produce enough for agriculture. For California a much better solution to the problem would be to stop focusing on urban water use and reducing agricultural water use. It makes zero sense to produce commodity crops, meat and dairy in a semi-arid region. No, California doesn't need to be the third biggest meat producer in the country, nor does it have to produce 80% of the world's almond harvest at a price of almost 1 gallon of water per nut. Stop producing these things, grow something else that makes more sense for the amount of water that is available and urban water use, which is only 10% of the water used in California, will not matter much.

This video makes me appreciate (More than I already do) the fresh water I have here where I live.

minimise wasting, plant more trees, gradually minimize greenhouse effect...water may get less scarcer

Why not just use the older evaporation and distillation method? Looks safer to me.

It seems to me that desalination powered by renewable energy and effective dilution of the brine or recovery of the salt will solve the RO problems.

Why not evaporating the Brine in a big open field and sell the Seasalt?

I live a few blocks from the harbor. Our water is ludicrously expensive. I live alone and have a small garden. I go to the laundromat to do my laundry. My monthly water bill is $100. This is Florida. It is very expensive here. So I bought dehumidifier and a small solar generator and wired them together. I get about 40 gallons a day which is just enough to keep my garden going on dry days. During rainy season I have a rainwater collection system and a 1000 gallon cistern.

We really need to build the same kind of new generation desal plants that Saudi Arabi is doing, solar dome desalination. It is similar to the original kind of desalination talked about in this video, evaporation type, only is FAR more efficient and even a good amount more efficient than reverse osmosis type. You can also take the lithium and cobalt from the process and use those for batteries which are also very important in today's day and age, and would more than offset the the cost of desalination. In fact if the plan in Saudi Arabia works out, it would be a complete game changer in Lithium supply chain as well as potentially stop the huge ecological damage from lithium mining since that could be greatly ramped down.

As the cost of the energy to run the desalination plants would be very high, why not use Thorium Reactors to provide lasting, clean energy from an off the grid source? What issues would need to be overcome to try this type of fuel arrangement?

I like how the lady says that they have other “options” and then names off only one option, which is what everyone is trying to do anyway.

Sell brine to northern states to put on roads.

Desalination will keep on getting better, and since most desalination plants are pumping ocean water right next to deserts, then the brine can be concentrated in inland desert ponds, lithium extracted, and the dried salt mixed with sand and melted into glass using solar furnaces. The glass can the be used to make mirrors for more solar furnaces, bottles, and a host of other things. 🌞

Improving water usage habits would definitely help quite a bit. Can't tell you how many I personally know taking unnecessary 30+ minute showers, leaving the water on while they brush their teeth, etc...

"Yay with these technology we could have unlimited clean water for everyone!" Nestle: "I'm just going to stop you right there"

beginning music sounds like it should be in an American steak commercial

We have a desalination plant here in Melbourne Australia. It has cost to date $3.5billion to build since 2012 and $649million of tax payers money to run per year. It can produce enough clean water to supply one third of the Melbourne population but they say that it will probably never be used as we have at least 10 years worth of water.

My husband and I use an average of 33 gallons a day and we even have several fruit trees and a few vegetables. We save shower warm up water, have a laundry to landscape system, we put in 3,200 gallons of rain tanks for summer watering of fruit trees, we wash dishes in about an inch of water in a tub, we have a shut off valve in our showers, and we only flush when necessary. If you have a pool, don't fill it with dirt like we did 13 years ago. Turn it into a huge rainwater storage tank. (We might try digging out our pool again and doing that.)

Video: We must consider other forms of drinking water before considering desalination... Me: and those are....??? Video: THE END

Every coastal city/town in California should be obtaining their water from the Ocean! Not sucking it out of the Sierra Nevada and Colorado River!

Title: Harnessing Water intake in desalination plants from mesopelagic (below epipelagic) region I'd like to propose an idea that has possible potential to help the desalination industry. Imagine a desalination plant that deploys an intake pipe from mesopelagic region to the surface, and then pumps its feedwater from the opening of this large pipe on the sea surface. This pipe will continue to fill due to the capillary action and we do not need energy-intensive pumps to bring that "cleaner" water to the surface. There are several compelling reasons to explore this approach: 1. Reduced Biofouling: Drawing water from greater depths could significantly reduce the risk of biofouling, a persistent challenge in desalination. By avoiding the epipelagic region where microorganisms thrive, we can minimize fouling and maintenance costs. 2. Potential for Lower Suspended Particle Concentration: mesopelagic waters typically have lower concentrations of suspended particles compared to surface waters. This could lead to system longevity and reduced costs. 3. Environmental Impact: Deploying a possible parallel line for brine disposal at the same depth can mitigate the environmental impact of brine discharge. This approach allows for more efficient dilution and dispersion, reducing harm to marine ecosystems. 4. Significant Savings: Energy savings, reduced maintenance costs, and improved desalination efficiency could translate into significant economic benefits for the industry. I invite you to share your thoughts, ideas, and expertise on this proposal. #WaterTreatment #Desalination #Innovation #Sustainability

The brine could be used to take the various minerals the land is missing, it would help limit the mining of those different minerals and therefore limit use of heavy machinery that wrecks natural habitats. Potassium is found in seawater and is used in gardens as well as healthcare. Brine could also be used in flow batteries(since its sealed i would try to put a limit on how many batteries are made ). We should still try not to take too much saltwater out of the ocean at one time, try to use the desalinated water to slowly add more water to the soil so we don't need to use as much. Give the ocean time to regain homeostasis with the water cycle and the rain will help wash the salt back into the ocean.

Nestle: Now how does this affect me and how much can we make off it?

THE REPLY: IF THEY DON'T MAKE MONEY OUT OF IT.... THEY DON'T SOLVE THE WATER CRISIS....

Videos like these make me grateful that I live in Canada where most of North America's fresh drinking water is located. As for solutions, maybe I'm not aware of the cost of things, but wouldn't it make more sense to build a reservoir up north in places like Oregon where it rains for like half the year and have a pipeline travel from those states down to the states that need them like California and Nevada?

Salt water can still be used for some of the things we use water for Including watering lawn or swimming pools. De salting would only be necessary for indoor tap or consumption. People that have sprinkler systems or pools can filter their own water.

How can an average American use 100 gallons of water a day? Perpahsp start teaching people to save water.

This video failed to mention: * Rainwater tanks were illegal in California until recently * You can use used shower water to flush the toilets * The third world needs to stop subsidising water

When you take your shower, catch the water you would let go down the drain during shower warm up. You can save that water for drinking, poring on plants or washing your dishes. Also, I put a large bowl in my kitchen sink and catch all of the water from washing my hands, rinsing dishes, and cleaning vegetables and fresh fruit. I call that my pioneer water or cowboy water bowl. When the bowl is full I dump that into a bucket and take it outside and pour it on the ground under the hedges, around the trees and even on dry spots on the lawn. You can join the cowboy water club too! Save Water, save money, and save your water source.

I think the answer is to use the use the power of gravity from the ocean as a hydro electric source for de-sal plants up and down the coast. (Just like the Hoover Dam, except up against the coast). Not only produces power to run the plant, but the turbines would produce excess electricity that could double as a power stations. So the water that runs past the turbines is de-salinated. Put the plants underground, Siesmic-proof). Would not even know they are there. Imagine no smokestacks. Safest way to ensure ocean biology to have the intakes well below the sufface, like a dam. Would start to de-acidify the coastlines that are presently putting a world of hurt on the ecosystem. Clean. Always works as long as there is water in the ocean. Ship the brine by-waste to great Salt Lake or to the desert where evap contributes to more rain. I'm sure the Salt lake can take a little more. The cost is now affordable based on what an acre ft. of water costs presently. Have several at the coast of the Sea of Cortez. where the Colorado comes in. We pump oil over continents, why not water (much safer when a spill happens) to the head of the Colorado. Mitigates the sea rising. Our imported water is the the Colorado River. If the level of Lake Mead goes below the intake inlets of the Hoover dam Vegas Stops. Game over. No lights. De-sal plants would be a help in mitigating the rising levels and providing constant energy. It's not rocket science. The Israelis figured it out, we should to.

When your option is water or no water you choose desalination to have water.

This is the one lesson I get from this video. **What is holding us back from saving the world's water crisis?** Money.

What they should do with their “Brine Water” is to pump it into Large Shallow Brine Pits, and then use the Suns Rays to Evaporate the Water from the Brine, and then what’s leftover is Sea Salt. Then that Sea Salt can be sold to everything from Restaurants, Stores, and can even be sold/used on Roads that Ice up. California wouldn’t even have to ship it very far. It can be sold to states right above them where it’s known to Snow/Ice Up at. It’s a Win Win

This video invited only those speakers who were against the Water Desalination process.

Pump the brine into the deserts, create man-made salt flats and let nature do the rest through evaporation. A continued build-up of salt in a salt flat would essentially be harmless.

KZfaq listening to my personal conversations again

Disposing off brine in a dessert would: 1. Help with humidity and rain, 2. Get back salt to where it originally came from, the land. What we don't want to do is throwing brine back to the sea (basically throwing the salt back to the sea, after some fresh water has been removed, thus increasing salt concentration in the sea).

As a MIcroBioChemist from UCR I think Desalination should happen in the high and hot lands of Bakersfield and Riverside, if we pump salt water to higher grounds using a series of filters along the way: (as processing centers) [Nutrient Processing center taking Nitrogen, as well as ethyl and octane plant(1) near the coast, mega particle filtration "Uranium" near the valleys (Plant 2), Lithium, and silicate extraction before higher altitude (plant 3) and at the highest altitude and brine filtration and processing plant. Brine being a higher salt concentration of salt which makes it hard to get water from sodium electron energy we require more energy however since most of these Desalination plants are costal, and are all processing salt water and use fossil,], point being we can use the Sun to desalinate the water in the hotter parts of the state instead of burning fuel, and pumps using solar energy. we can restore the ecosystem in the ocean by reducing waste and on land by using that waste to provide nutrients to the land (Plant 1), and provide free energy, Lithium (plant 3) and uranium (plant 2) we need. We are focusing too much on one rather than all. I mean we are having Wars and wasting our "limited energy and brain power" over things that are literally FREE in the Ocean. Humans need to wise up as a species to freely obtain these resource.

I literally thought of this when I was a little kid. I thought if oceans were rising and we were losing fresh water to just use sea water to lower the tides.

Now all we need to do is figure out a way to make salt a fuel source.

make a big basin with a dome over top of it, pump sea water in it and then let the sun do its magic and evaporate the water which can be collected with a gutter system around the base of the dome. Also you can collect the left over salt that can be made into table salt, etc. Lastly agitate the dome (in order to break the surface tension of the water droplets) with something similar to the imbalanced rotor that is in your controller that lets you feel like you're shooting, crashing, etc. For desalination at night, use a solar panel grid to charge batteries, which then can be used to energize electrodes in the basin that can be used for electrolysis (causing hydrogen and oxygen to be separated out of the water as vapor that combines in the dome, making water droplets just like solar evaporation). Just an idea /shrug.

I realize that brine being poured into the ocean is not really mixing it in, which maybe a funnel could be built to do that (take in ocean water and mix it with brine water), but I had been under the impression a concern was that too many glaciers melting would disrupt the saline balance in the oceans. I'm also confused why the brine isn't being sold to companies that could use it (for saline solutions !). Someone else mentioned here in comments selling it to companies that produce salt for water softeners, or even for roads where it snows.

Use reverse osmosis plants to get the bulk of fresh water, then use less efficient thermal desalination on the brine until you are left with only fresh water and salt.

Next: Why the solution to this problem is causing another problem.

8:14 Don't dispose of the brine. Sell it to a company that will spray it on the flats and generate Artisanal Sea Salt that will sell for $18 per pound (j/k). As a side note, fully desalinated water and the resulting brine may not be required: brackish water or partially desalinated water can be used for some types of agriculture, one of the largest demands of water in CA. This would alleviate the burden on the fresh water supply.

They can build pipelines for oil. Why not build pipelines from the Great Lakes to the rivers that flow into the southwest?

Anyone else hear bill burr in their head, “they want to own water”. Lol

or maybe stop letting nestle buy it all, who even has the power to sell it, where did they buy it from...........

I am watching this in Aug 2022 during a major drought in US, EU and China.

Several things. The American Southwest is out of water, we have to do something as 40 million people have moved there in the last 50 years. 2) The brine can be harvested for lithium which is critical for li-ion batteries and would remove a lot of the lithium mining, which is horrible for the environment. 3) New types of nuclear power are safe and produce zero greenhouse gases, look up thorium power sometime when you are bored. It could be an awesome way to help solve our energy crisis w/o adding to our CO2/greenhouse gas levels.

Why can't we stock the left over brine in ponds to finish the drying out process and turn it into salt.

This dude has the best narration voice on the channel

When the video started I felt in a Dodge Ram commercial

Hey! Right next to the desalination plant is a sewage treatment plant pouring fresh water into the ocean so stop worrying and use your heads. Net neutral saline or less.

I lived on a US NAVY ship 12 years and we used desalinated water whenever we were underway!

We could do anything if we truly tried.

1. Middle East sends a lot of oil tankers to East Asia where fresh water is plenty. On return the oil tanks are filled by seawater for balance. They could do this with fresh water and this could help (not solve) with the issue with some of these countries. 2. The brine is dense and heavy. What if nanobubbles are injected to the water? This reduces the density and might help with mixing with the seawater.

I worked on USS Eisenhower. We had two D,E, units. They turned sea water into fresh water. I've been asking this question for years, why don't CA do this?

The Brine could also be sold to areas with Hard Water/High PH to soften their water. Today, in 2021, as I watch this, over 120 Countries operate Desalination Plants. With the Rising levels of the Ocean Waters, Investing in Responsible Desalination Methods seems like a worthy Investment. Droughts are only getting worse & nothing can live without clean water!

That’s the price you have to pay when you choose to build massive cities in a desert environment.

It is known that brine has many needed minerals that could be removed. If you don't know what to do with the Brine, pump it to Death Valley and let the sun start the process of separating out salt and rare minerals.

Profitability is directly correlated with ecological harm. Taking water directly from the natural water cycle is vastly cheaper, and if we consider all the positive side effects, it becomes even cheaper. The capacity is literally limitless. Off southern Mexico or Yemen, is enough water in the air to produce the Mississippi or even the Amazon rivers. The book Pluvicopia shows these figures and how the process is simple and reliable. If we can tap the natural water cycle, we can solve all problems considered impossible; CO2 reduction, Sea Level rise, Doubling the amount of arable land, and regional cooling are all durable with the natural water cycle. That's how the planet is supposed to work.

Desalination is wonderful just can't ignore gulping down the infinite oceans

Here in the UK we don't have water problems It rains 7 months of the year so there's always a fresh supply.

Hi Heather, thanks for your Desalination process overview. I write you to ask if you wish to know more about how to get fresh water t the Nations in need. I spent +20 years working on how to do this. All systems have not mentioned my technology. I have eliminated almost 95% of energy costs, totally reduced the byproduct dumping needs, and improved the fresh water quality beyond desalination standards. You would like to have the total fresh water story, rather than the most expensive and most popular technologies you mention. What I suggest is getting to know what I have, and agreeing to help me move the simple technology forward to interested Nations who want to try the FORGER-ON Water Collector.

We should try and seriously consider it. Especially since the sea levels are rising, great idea!

I love the phrase "some projections". Its utility to scare everyone in any direction is virtually limitless.

So to sum up: first save water as much as you can, then reuse wastewater and finally use disalination

And so just like we knew using salt water. Now let's start using up the salt water instead of the clean water. Instead of telling companies, no more wasting billions of gallons of water on a frequent, mostly basis😮

The brine flowing back into the ocean is bleaching it and it kills coral riffs and fishes, BUT there is an entire hotel/Restaurant build out of salt, so given that Saltwater is available almost anywhere around the world it would be THE perfect and cheap, renewable building material, in thick layers of 30 centimeters it's imune against rain and even hardens. Sort of like Ice. If I had the materials to dry bricks myself out of salt I would do it. But then again ... that takes effort and time.

"48 Billion gallons for every person on Earth" Does kind of Discount the Fact that there are other Living Organisms on Earth that need Water to Survive also and their BioMass is Ten Thousand times larger than that of Humans.

With all that overload of money Middle East oil countries have...they should start getting in water business before oil runs out

I had a portable dehumidifier and was surprised at how much water accumulates in its container. It looks so clean it looked good enough to drink. The instructions said do not drink dehumidifier water. So l never did. I just dumped clean looking water down the drain. It's always left me wondering why ?

I'm amazed that we still continue to build more houses in places like Phoenix and Las Vegas. Doesn't make sense at all with hardly no rainfall and a limited water supply.

Southern California happens to be sunny. Solar energy production is easy. The technology to desalinate water has improved. Lower pressure filtration is now available. The electrical load on motors will be less. Combining solar electricity and easily available sea water can potentially create a Garden of Eden. The entire Southwest can benefit. The Colorado River will not provide enough needed water. Arizona and Nevada are already warning California about the coming droughts. When the water runs dry the public will demand action perhaps then cost will not matter.

Desalination seems like a good idea for a place like California that faces large solar energy surpluses during the day. Run desalination during summer days when water is the most scarce and energy is practically free.

I am confident that the brine will soon be considered a precious raw material for extracting important elements from it, such as lithium, uranium, magnesium, bromide and iodide.

When it finally comes down to it no matter what the cost you will pay to quench your thirst

we don't have a water crisis, we have a political and logistical crisis

This is the sort of issue that most politicians would be deathly afraid to touch. As to who should pay for such an ambitious venture such as a publically served and badly needed desalinization plant, I'm decidedly not of the opinion that it should be paid for solely at public expense. Therefore, the citizens of the locality that will benefit from the desalinization plant should be taxed accordingly. But, what will really happen is this. Politicians in an effort to muddy the waters, so to speak, (and no pun intended), will hotly and endlessly debate the issue and will create 2 armed camps coast to coast, with a highly spirited filibuster, over whether or not to build additional desalinization plants in the areas where they are desperately needed. Those who are seeking new Office will either side with those who are decidedly in support of building them, while others will side with those on grounds conducted in denouncing the pproceeding. In either case, they will keep a vitally exploratory finger on the pulse of the nation, so to speak, to react to any change in the mood of the voters, as to whether they will change their capricious minds, (guided mainly by the capricious minds of others.) Every politician knows that his or her career could instantly wind up in smouldering ruins, if he backed the wrong issue, hence, his fearful reluctance to have anything to do with a heavily charged bete noire such as this! It has been said that if you like sausage and also respect the law, then don't watch either one of them being made!

The only way to lower the cost of these things is to ramp up the production of them.

Second stage: evaporate more fresh water from brine, get salt as a byproduct.

It’s irrelevant that San Diego’s cost for desalinated water is twice the cost. Lake Meade is disappearing and is VERY much over taxed. I

We have a water storage problem, meaning there is more water stored in plastic bottles. And is not evaporating . Not when more water is being bottled every year than is being drank and in turn evaporating one way or the other.

Jack up the price of water. We do not have a water shortage where I live but the price has increased from 30 cents per m3 to 17.00 per m3. It has been 5 years since I last watered my lawn. If it does not rain the grass turns brown and stops growing, saving the cost of mowing.

Cost would NEVER be an issue if we all got together and did it because it will save lives. Cost is ONLY an issue when a profit is preferred. Just saying

Bear Grylls has the answer.

For 60 years there was a plan to bring water from the north which was called the NAWAPA project, which would have used water that's being dumped into the Pacific without being used, it would have created a new Tennessee valley like project which would resolve the west's water problem.

Okay, I could be completely off base with this, but I had a potentially crazy thought. We lose how many gallons a day of fresh water going in to the ocean? With current technology there is no way to stop that. (Given). How long does it take brine to break down when added to fresh water? Pick a spot where water enters the ocean and try adding brine to it and let it dilute and return to the sea somewhere close to where it started?

People need to replace all the trees that have been mowed down over the years........Trees hold water, filter water, retain soil preventing erosion....