Marine and Coastal Impacts of Ocean Desalination in California
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Currently in its fourth year of drought, California is investigating a variety of alternative sources for water—each of which has its own environmental, economic and social considerations. Ocean desalination, currently a small piece of California’s overall water supply, has received rekindled interest as a potential alternative in large part due to a seemingly “drought-proof” supply of seawater on the state’s doorstep. However, many desalination proposals have been controversial, and many community leaders, policymakers and advocates have questioned the relative value of ocean desalination as compared to potentially cheaper and more efficient alternatives, such as water conservation. In addition, as with all developed sources of water, the process of desalination could impact the environment. If poorly sited and designed, ocean desalination can have major undesirable impacts on marine ecosystems, nearshore habitats and coastal communities. Moreover, regardless of how well they are designed, all desalination facilities currently consume a great deal of energy and have the potential to increase greenhouse gas emissions.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | May 23, 2016 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Szeptycki, Leon |
|---|---|
| Author | Hartge, Eric |
| Author | Ajami, Newsha K. |
| Author | Erickson, Ashley |
| Author | Heady, Walter N. |
| Author | LaFeir, Latise |
| Author | Meister, Barbara |
| Author | Verdone, Lily |
| Author | Koseff, Jeffrey R. |
| Sponsor | Stanford Water in the West, a program of the Woods Institute for the Environment and the Bill Lane Center for the American West, Stanford University. |
| Sponsor | Monterey Bay Aquarium. |
| Sponsor | Nature Conservancy. |
| Sponsor | Center for Ocean Solutions. |
| Sponsor | Stanford University. Woods Institute for the Environment. |
Subjects
| Subject | Water and energy |
|---|---|
| Subject | Desalination |
| Subject | Energy conservation consumption and utilization |
| Genre | Article |
Bibliographic information
| Related item | |
|---|---|
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/cn747vm2462 |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Szeptycki, Leon, Hartge, Eric, Ajami, Newsha K., Erickson, Ashley, Heady, Walter N., LaFeir, Latise, Meister, Barbara, Verdone, Lily and Koseff, Jeffrey R. (2016). Marine and Coastal Impacts of Ocean Desalination in Calif. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: http://purl.stanford.edu/cn747vm2462
Collection
Water in the West Reports and Working Papers
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