Would appreciate more info? I heard about it this weekend, but would like to hear from more people in the know. The fish and wildlife groups in the areas are strongly opposed to a new Desalination plant because the fears of the salt killing most of the fish and wildlife in the bays surrounding it. Also, from what I've heard, the people in support of it had some shady deals put in place to where any organized effort in opposing it came with severe repercussions, to the point where only grassroots opposable efforts are available.

Edit: I know almost nothing about desal plants, so if I said something ignorant above, please correct me.

Go look up Saudi Arabia and Desal Plants.

They have a ton of them. You can probably find all you need from articles on them?

They put the salt back in the ocean? Couldn't they sell that as a byproduct?

I know nothing about desalination.

There are ways to spread the salt over an extended area so that it doesn't create the danger most people protest against.

Texas is going to have a massive water crises in the near future if we don't figure out ways to add more water to the system. We have too many people taking up too much surface water and too many people and facilities with straws in the ground to not start desal plants.

The same folks protesting these are the same protesting nuke plants and just like nuke plants if done properly they can be safe.

If it keeps the sea levels from rising, I'm all for it.

My thought: If the envirowhackos didn't ruin everything, we could build more lakes and wouldn't need desalination yet.

rocky the dog said:

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If it keeps the sea levels from rising, I'm all for it.

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Especially if your once third row beach house is now 1st row, and the next hurricane makes your yard property of State of Texas.

oldcrow91 said:

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My thought: If the envirowhackos didn't ruin everything, we could build more lakes and wouldn't need desalination yet.

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What do you have against snail darters?

Desalination is why Saudi Arabia and Israel have irrigation and water.

It's a great thing and the US needs it especially texas with San Antonio draining the Edward's aquifer dry.

Cali was dumb as **** to reject it as they need it worse than any other state and their water pull out of the Colorado River hurts all surrounding states.

They were selfish *******s to vote it down.

If you think desalination is going to hurt the local ecosystems worse than all the chemicals being washed into the gulf that currents push down to the texas coast via the Mississippi and the oil rigs ur a fool.

GeorgiAg said:

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They put the salt back in the ocean? Couldn't they sell that as a byproduct?

I know nothing about desalination.

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I have the same question. Isn't sea salt the latest, greatest condiment? It's on everything now. Sea salt almonds, sea salt crackers, etc. Work out a deal with Morton's to bottle it up or whatever.

Maybe we could hire some Orthodox Jews to oversee the salt process so we can sell that as kosher sea salt. I mean, this is Texas after all...we have a lot of BBQ'ers and we can only use kosher salt on our briskets and butts (though the irony of using kosher salt on a pork butt is not lost on me).

With the amount of natural gas available in nearby Eagleford shale that is already being piped into the area, there would be no shortage of required fuel for a plant. I'm sure there are studies that are being done or already have been done to ascertain any detrimental effects of desal effluent. You are going to hear all sorts of theories of what is going to be doomsday horse hockey.

With the boom in building and people moving into the coastal bend, something will have to be done in regards to water. The Nueces and Frio Rivers will not carry enough water to support the population requirements here.

Just my opinion.

rocky the dog said:

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If it keeps the sea levels from rising, I'm all for it.

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Just gotta pump it up to the North Pole and spray it so it freezes.

Cali has chosen to put treated sewer water into their reservoirs. Desalinization play water would have been better.

Desalination plant with a nuclear plant for fuel is a good combo.

Desal works great as a technology, but is difficult to compete on pricing compared to groundwater and surface water treatment. Higher energy costs, higher environmental permitting requirements, and infinitely higher disposal of RO reject water costs (no reject disposal really for either traditional source), and generally higher transmission costs especially for ocean desal (having to pump uphill to whatever the buyer of water is located).

The challenges facing RO are rarely a technology or logistical in nature, but the pure economics of trying to find buyers of expensive water at the price it costs to desal.

Absolute scarcity and water demand growth is changing that math though and Desal will a major player in the future.

It's a good idea if they build Next Gen Nuclear Reactors to power them

I've heard a lot of the locals say that the effluent would be dumped near or in shore. I haven't read up on the plant, but I don't see any way that would pass TCEQ or EPA discharge requirements. But I'm also not dumb enough to believe there is pay to play going on.

Ags4DaWin said:

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Desalination is why Saudi Arabia and Israel have irrigation and water.

It's a great thing and the US needs it especially texas with San Antonio draining the Edward's aquifer dry.

Cali was dumb as **** to reject it as they need it worse than any other state and their water pull out of the Colorado River hurts all surrounding states.

They were selfish *******s to vote it down.

If you think desalination is going to hurt the local ecosystems worse than all the chemicals being washed into the gulf that currents push down to the texas coast via the Mississippi and the oil rigs ur a fool.

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Go look at the projected Texas population by 2100. If we don't start working on Desal and significantly more power generation stat we'll be in real trouble. We need a ton more to handle the Dallas, Houston and Austin metros being a combined 100 million people. That's more than 70 years out but remember that it's been almost 70 years since California built a significant reservoir and it looks like building additional significant reservoirs in Texas will be difficult due to the increased demands of our riverine network up stream in regards to Agriculture. We will need those resources in the next several decades. It is energy intensive currently but building more power generation will be needed as well.

Edit: Don't know anything about the company on this one so no comment there, just that Texas has a general need for these resources.

Possibilities of brine discharge points would include holding ponds adjacent to the plant, the nearby Laguna Madre or about 2 1/2 to 3 miles into the Gulf of Mexico, Murphy said.

https://www.caller.com/story/news/local/2023/03/28/city-considering-another-desalination-site-near-flour-bluff-power-plant/70052291007/



The nearby Laguna Madre would be idiocy.

homebuildingag said:

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There are ways to spread the salt over an extended area so that it doesn't create the danger most people protest against.

Texas is going to have a massive water crises in the near future if we don't figure out ways to add more water to the system. We have too many people taking up too much surface water and too many people and facilities with straws in the ground to not start desal plants.

The same folks protesting these are the same protesting nuke plants and just like nuke plants if done properly they can be safe.

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Nukes and Desals!

rocky the dog said:

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If it keeps the sea levels from rising, I'm all for it.

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Yeah, problem solved

Pretty sad when the EPA is the potential voice of reason.

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/09/22/texas-desalination-plant-corpus-christi-tceq-epa/

Quote:

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Texas is going to have a massive water crises in the near future if we don't figure out ways to add more water to the system. We have too many people taking up too much surface water and too many people and facilities with straws in the ground to not start desal plants.

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San Antonio Water System is on it...

https://www.water-technology.net/projects/saws-brackish-groundwater-desalination-plant-san-antonio/


https://www.tetratech.com/en/projects/san-antonio-desalination-plant

Still groundwater based from brackish well fields. Ocean desal wouldn't rely as much on dwindling groundwater resources...though brackish water sources are still fairly plentiful and relatively untapped compared to freshwater sources.

Great something else to make Port A more crowded. Now if it causes less houses to be built than maybe that is a net positive.

Owlagdad said:

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rocky the dog said:

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If it keeps the sea levels from rising, I'm all for it.

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Especially if your once third row beach house is now 1st row, and the next hurricane makes your yard property of State of Texas.

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Its an accepted risk. Enjoy your beachfront living until the next big one.

rocky the dog said:

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Quote:

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Texas is going to have a massive water crises in the near future if we don't figure out ways to add more water to the system. We have too many people taking up too much surface water and too many people and facilities with straws in the ground to not start desal plants.

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San Antonio Water System is on it...

https://www.water-technology.net/projects/saws-brackish-groundwater-desalination-plant-san-antonio/


https://www.tetratech.com/en/projects/san-antonio-desalination-plant

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San Antonio built a desal plant so they could be in the cool kids' club and say they have one. Yes, they have one, but they don't use it because it is too expensive to operate compared to the cheap Edwards Aquifer water. Reality is that it sits idle for long periods of time which is really a bad way to run a desal plant.

homebuildingag said:

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There are ways to spread the salt over an extended area so that it doesn't create the danger most people protest against.

Texas is going to have a massive water crises in the near future if we don't figure out ways to add more water to the system. We have too many people taking up too much surface water and too many people and facilities with straws in the ground to not start desal plants.

The same folks protesting these are the same protesting nuke plants and just like nuke plants if done properly they can be safe.

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Thanks. Question for you (since you seem semi knowledgeable from your post), would large scale lake building in the less habitable, more arid places of Texas be a more affordable alternative?

Or even a large scale lake operation using existing rivers, building a chain of them similar to what they have done in the hill country? You keep adding lakes up and down the Colorado, you start doing that wholesale with the Red, Rio Grande, Pecos, etc?

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Cali has chosen to put treated sewer water into their reservoirs

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Uhhhh, I'm not sure how to break this to you…

AnScAggie said:

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Great something else to make Port A more crowded. Now if it causes less houses to be built than maybe that is a net positive.

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Hope it never loses the village feel

GeorgiAg said:

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They put the salt back in the ocean? Couldn't they sell that as a byproduct?

I know nothing about desalination.

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Most new desalination plants use reverse osmosis, so the "retentate" is a concentrated brine, not a solid salt crystal. Even multistage flash distillation systems produce a concentrated brine on the back end. Both produce a liquid, pumpable effluent.

Precipitating solids would be a major problem to avoid in operating a continuous desalination system.

Of all the things that are dumped into the Bay, salt should be the least of our worries

i know nothing about desal, but it seems as easy as taking a barge out in the middle of the gulf and dumping it.

Red Red Wine said:

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Go look up Saudi Arabia and Desal Plants.

They have a ton of them. You can probably find all you need from articles on them?

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Israel desalinates Mediterranean water, pumps it to an intermediate reservoir, then uses that water to raise water quality in the Sea of Galilee, which of course feeds the Jordan River agricultural areas.

Tony Franklins Other Shoe said:

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Possibilities of brine discharge points would include holding ponds adjacent to the plant, the nearby Laguna Madre or about 2 1/2 to 3 miles into the Gulf of Mexico, Murphy said.

https://www.caller.com/story/news/local/2023/03/28/city-considering-another-desalination-site-near-flour-bluff-power-plant/70052291007/



The nearby Laguna Madre would be idiocy.

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The CCA and the big money guys on the coast would surely stop it from going into the Laguna Madre.

I'm all for it IF they can prove it wont disrupt one of only 7 hypersaline bay systems in the world, or damage one of, if not the most diverse ecosystems in the state of Texas.

Owlagdad said:

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AnScAggie said:

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Great something else to make Port A more crowded. Now if it causes less houses to be built than maybe that is a net positive.

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Hope it never loses the village feel

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When's the last time you were in Port A? The village feel left when hurricane reconstruction started. It's less crowded on the island in Corpus than it is in Port Aransas now.