A vision for the alleviation of water scarcity in the US Southwest

Re:A vision for the alleviation of water scarcity in the US ... by BytesAndGears on Friday January 12, 2024 @12:27PM (#38971013)

Yeah, but if you’re pulling in water and disposing it from a specific region, eventually the water that you’re pulling in is progressively saltier, and you’re compounding the saltiness of that area.

I’m sure that ocean currents will eventually equalize the salt, but if you’re continuously dumping salt into a specific area, it’s going to make that region of the ocean saltier.

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Re:A vision for the alleviation of water scarcity in the US ... by konschubert on Friday January 12, 2024 @12:27PM (#38971025)

You need pipes to spread it out. And I think you may be underestimating the scale and force of ocean currents. Every tide probably moves more water than California uses in a year.

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Re:A vision for the alleviation of water scarcity in the US ... by solardev on Friday January 12, 2024 @12:41PM (#38971248)

I don't think the ocean is equally saline everywhere: https://salinity.oceansciences.org/maps-global.htm

On average it's pretty close, but you can definitely get impacts from increased local salinity: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.16859 (just random ecamples)

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/slaking-the-world... (view in incognito)

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Re:A vision for the alleviation of water scarcity in the US ... by konschubert on Friday January 12, 2024 @12:45PM (#38971310)

Okay fair point.

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Re:A vision for the alleviation of water scarcity in the US ... by anon84873628 on Friday January 12, 2024 @06:20PM (#38975516)

Crucially but overlooked so far in these threads, is that the proposal does not have brine exiting on the California coast; it has it flowing into the Sea of Cortez.

That should be an obvious non-starter for anyone remotely familiar with the unique geography and ecology of the area.

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