The environmental impact of desalination waste disposal

1
The environmental impact of desalination waste
disposal
Image found _at_ cleanocean.org

• Darren Kimple

2
Freshwater

• Lots of people lots of freshwater needed
• By 2025 worldwide demand gt
  freshwater supply, by 56
• 97 of water ? in oceans
• lets clean it up and use it
  

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Desalination

• How does the process work?
• What happens to the waste?
• Effects on the environment?
• What problems have been caused?

Image found _at_ projects.gsd.harvard.edu
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Desalination

• Who can use it?
• Those with access to water sources
• Coastal areas
• Brackish aquifers
• Those who can afford it
• Oil-rich (water starved) Arabian Gulf countries
• Other wealthy countries like the U.S.

5
How does the desalination process work?
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Image found _at_ coal2nuclear.com
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Waste Disposal

• 45 ? surface waters
• 25 ? publicly owned treatment works
• 15 ? deep well injection
• Remainder ? evaporation ponds and other
  land applications

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Desalination Waste

• Whats in it?
• Lots of salt (up to 2.5X more than
  seawater)
• Chemicals and metals used to initially purify
  water at intake
• biocides
• anticorrosion chemicals
• coagulants
• corrosion metals
• Heat

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Deep Well Injection

• Environmental concerns
• A leak in the aquifer could cause contamination
  to freshwater supplies
• Earthquakes
• Increase in fluid pressure
• Has caused several thousand
  small earthquakes in the
  Colorado Rockies

Image found _at_ www.simsenv.com
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Landfill and Evaporation Ponds

• Environmental concerns
• Groundwater contamination
• Waste infiltration into subsurface
• Possible effects on drinking water
• Animals and their habitats
• Harmful chemicals in waste
• Vast space required

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River and Sewer (publicly owned treatment works)

• Environmental concerns
• Contamination of streams
• Fish habitats
• Human resources
• Overload on local water treatment plants

Image found _at_ www.thameswater.co.uk
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Solutions

• Dilution of discharge with power plant cooling
  water
• Cools down outgoing water
• Possible only where desalination plant is near
  power plant
• Separation of harmful constituents before
  discharge to water body
• U.S. facilities are required to aerate and adjust
  pH on discharging concentrate
• Filtered chemicals can later be reused
• Monitoring

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Effects of Direct Ocean Discharge

• Negative effects
• Southern Australia
• High salinity levels
• 50 mortality rate for certain organisms
• Sea urchins
• Starfish

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Effects of Direct Ocean Discharge

• Negative effects
• Kuwait Bay
• Toxic chlorine concentrations
• Phytoplankton
• Vertebrates and invertebrates
• Dumped daily into the Red Sea
• 2,708 kg of chlorine
• 36 kg of copper
• 9,478 kg of antiscalants

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Effects of Direct Ocean Discharge

• No effect
• Western Australia (Perth)
• Organisms and lush plants living in discharge
  area
• Island of Antigua (Caribbean)
• Elevated salinity
• No effect on tropical reef ecosystem

Image found _at_ www.caribda.com
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Conclusions

• Right now, not a lot of negative reports
• Could this trend change with increased
  desalination worldwide?
• Will concern over the environment one day shut
  down a regions desalination capabilities and
  their freshwater supply?

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Works Cited

• Anslow, Mark. "Salt of the Earth." The Ecologist
  38 (2008) 12.
• Beitel, Curtis B. "Meeting Tomorrow's Water
  Needs." Public Works 135 (2004) 22-25.
• Bistany, Andrea S. "Navigating the Rising
  Currents Of U.S. Water Reuse." Water Environment
  Technology 18 (2006) 20.
• Brannan, Paul. "Debunking Desalination." E the
  Environmental Magazine Mar.-Apr. 2008 16-18.
• Burtka, Allison. "Desalination What Happens
  Downstream." Water Environment Technology 16
  (2004) 16-18.
• Champ, Michael A., David A. Flemer, and Gary M.
  Noland. "The 21st Century Environmental Crisis."
  Sea Technology 49 (2008) 81.
• Conway, McKinley. "The Desalination Solution."
  The Futurist 42 (2008) 23-24.
• Energy Recovery Inc. "Energy Recovery Inc.
  Prospectus." 1 Apr. 2008. Energy Recovery Inc. 1
  Feb. 2009 lthttp//ipo.nasdaq.com/edgar_conv_html
  5C20085C045C015C000095 0149-08-000046.htmlgt.
• Graber, Cynthia. "Desalination in Spain."
  Technology Review 109 (2006) S1-S8.
• Miller, Wade G., and Jeffrey J. Mosher. "Got
  Water?" Water Environment Technology 17 (2005)
  76-80.
• Reuther, Christopher G. "Saline solutions the
  quest for fresh water." Environmental Health
  Perspectives 108 (2000) A78-80.
• "Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Process." Tampa
  Bay Water. 17 Jan. 2008. 1 Feb. 2009
  lthttp//www.tampabaywater.org/index.aspxgt.
• (No author listed) "The Price of Drinking Water."
  Environment 45 (2003) 5.
• Voutchkov, Nikolay. "That's Enough Salt, Thanks."
  Water Environment Technology 19 (2007) 96-99.
• Voutchkov, Nikolay. "The Ocean A New Resource
  for Drinking Water." Public Works 135 (2004)
  30-33.
• Water Science and Technology Board. Desalination
  - A National Perspective. Washington D.C.
  National Academic P, 2008.
• Images found at
• projects.gsd.harvard.edu

Image found _at_ www.ifh.uni-karlsruhe.de