So again, i know they have their problems but why is there not more effort in developing desalination plants in places like PEI?
Even with passive osmosis screens (low energy but higher maintenance compared to boiler systems) obtaining freshwater from the ocean seems a more useful thing to do than drain freshwater from areas that don't have freshwater reservoirs or deep aquifers.
Maybe some water engineer knows more about that.
Anyone?
On the topic of sewage, the city of Winnipeg was charged under the Fisheries Act a few years ago for an accident but nonetheless a spill from a broken valve.
I have little knowledge at all about desalination or it's efficiency so I couldn't offer a reply. Considering that they predict our Oceans to do nothing but rise for the next while, it seems like a worthy pursuit.
However, I do know from discussing it with a friend who lives in Dubai where there is a very large scale plant in operation, that it is very expensive process on a cost per litre basis. She told me how many times more expensive vs. fresh water collection but I can't recall. Also, that the plan in general comes under fire by ecological watchdog groups because the process of desalination also almost completely devoids the water of all of it's tinier organisms living in it. I must also assume that it produces a waste product. I'm speaking whimsically but maybe we can further refine that into road salt that we use so much of here in the winters?
