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Re:Why Is Desalination So Difficult? by superq on Wednesday July 05, 2023 @09:31PM (#36609762)
The Israelis ran into this problem with their mineral extraction in the Dead Sea, so they're bulldozing the dry salt waste to build a physical wall for border security (more than 10 meters high) that's apparently hard to climb:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgTheUjeDlg

Re:Why Is Desalination So Difficult? by nly on Thursday July 06, 2023 @04:00AM (#36612691)
Errrr...rain? Runoff?
Re:Why Is Desalination So Difficult? by dekelpilli on Thursday July 06, 2023 @06:11AM (#36613700)
Answered at 2:16 of the video - the claim is that the rain actually helps, as it makes the "mountain" steeper.
Re:Why Is Desalination So Difficult? by ChiperSoft on Thursday July 06, 2023 @04:00PM (#36621945)
Yeah, but it runs along a river… which will now be salinated every time it rains.
Re:Why Is Desalination So Difficult? by sh34r on Thursday July 06, 2023 @09:07PM (#36625664)
I did a bit of Googling. It’s a desalination plant on the Dead Sea. That is the Jordan River. The stretch they are building the salt wall on is barren desert land.

Jericho is the nearest town, 18,000 people, 8” of rain a year, 2 miles from the border. They presumably get their water from that desalination plant. No towns that far south are getting their water from it. The river barely even makes it to the Dead Sea anymore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_River#Main_environmenta...

Adding a bit more salt into the famously-salty Dead Sea are the least of their problems in that part of the world. Where else would you put the salt, anyway? Putting it all into the Dead Sea would be even worse —- at least this reduces the amount that makes it back there. Putting it into any other watershed would cause vastly more harm.

It seems like a good enough solution to me. If you think about it, it wouldn’t be in Israel’s interests to inflame tensions with Jordan over this, if it were really an issue.

Re:Why Is Desalination So Difficult? by pjc50 on Thursday July 06, 2023 @04:20AM (#36612871)
Well that's impressively bonkers. That's a geological feature that will baffle future generations.
Re:Why Is Desalination So Difficult? by niemandhier on Thursday July 06, 2023 @07:25AM (#36614227)
That will make the region hostile to life for 1000s of years even if climate patterns were to change.
Re:Why Is Desalination So Difficult? by refurb on Thursday July 06, 2023 @09:14AM (#36615234)
It’s literally meters away from the Dead Sea that has salt crystallizing on the beaches.

Ain’t changing anything in the environment.

Re:Why Is Desalination So Difficult? by oska on Friday July 07, 2023 @01:24AM (#36627544)
They obviously are changing the environment. You'd need a proper environmental impact statement to determine what the negative aspects of these changes are. I wonder if one was done?
Re:Why Is Desalination So Difficult? by refurb on Friday July 07, 2023 @02:38AM (#36628025)
By that definition, when my kid goes to the beach and digs a hole in the sand and fills it with water they are "changing the environment". Do we need a proper environmental impact statement to determine the negative aspects of these changes?

Come on. They are literally moving salt a few meters.

Re:Why Is Desalination So Difficult? by DropInIn on Friday July 07, 2023 @09:54AM (#36631797)
No, they are fundamentally changing the salts state and manner of interaction with the environment.

What do giant piles of salt do aside from melt and "burn" whatever they touch? That's right, they Spread.

Re:Why Is Desalination So Difficult? by refurb on Saturday July 08, 2023 @10:03AM (#36644520)
You realize these piles of salt are right next to natural piles of salt?
Re:Why Is Desalination So Difficult? by snypher on Sunday July 09, 2023 @11:50AM (#36655514)
This is just broken window theory for the beach.
Re:Why Is Desalination So Difficult? by JacobAldridge on Thursday July 06, 2023 @11:41PM (#36626813)
That’s a Lot of salt…
Re:Why Is Desalination So Difficult? by DropInIn on Friday July 07, 2023 @09:48AM (#36631706)
So they plan to build a wall in illegally occupied territory and salt the earth in a way that ensures thier neighbors land is useless?

JFC that country is fucking evil