Desalination and water security in the US–Mexico border region: assessing the social, environmental and political impacts

Abstract

In the western US-Mexico border region, both countries' authorities look to desalination as a means to meet increased demands for dwindling supplies. In addition to several existing or planned desalination plants, plans exist to develop projects along Mexico's coasts to convert seawater into freshwater primarily for conveyance and consumption in the United States. Even though desalination systems have the potential to increase water supply in the region, there are associated consequences, costs and constraints. To understand the impacts of such binational desalination systems, this paper assesses, through a water-security framework, the case of a proposed desalination plant on the Upper Gulf of California. The analysis suggests that for binational desalination systems, there are several key areas of impact against which the benefits of increased water supply must be weighed. ARTICLE HISTORY

Learning Curve for Seawater Reverse Osmosis Desalination Plants: Capital Cost Trend of the Past, Present, and Future

“…Meanwhile, desalination sceptics believe that water conservation, improved water use efficiency in all sectors, and water management should be initially considered to achieve water security (Wilder et al, ). The main concerns are the high capital, operating costs of running desalination plants and the environmental problems.…”

Solar desalination: Cases, synthesis, and challenges

“…Due to their coastal location, Denmark, Australia, and Abu Dhabi have the option to discharge brine into the sea. Brine disposal can potentially harm marine ecosystems (Elimelech & Phillip, ; Wilder et al, ), though some studies in Israel showed that brine disposal into the Mediterranean Sea caused limited harm (Shemer & Semiat, ; Tal, ). These studies showed that environmental impacts to marine life were limited to the immediate brine discharge area (Miller, Shemer, & Semiat, ; Tal, ).…”

“…Options for mitigating the negative effects of brine disposal from seawater desalination operations include using multiport diffusers that disperse the brine through multiple outlets from the discharge pipeline (National Research Council, ; Wilder et al, ). If a seawater desalination plant is intertwined with a thermal powerplant, the powerplant's outgoing cooling water could be mixed with brine effluent to dilute the mixture as it enters the sea (Elimelech & Phillip, ).…”

Meteorological Macro-Imagineering: A Re-plumbed Freshwater Supply System for the USA’s Southwest? (Macro-Imagenharia Meteorológica: Um Sistema de Abastecimento de Água Doce para o Sudoeste dos EUA?)

“…In fact, the human populations of the USA's Southwest and northern Mexico might find themselves in a truly revolutionary early-21st Century situation whereby independence from all freshwater extraction macro-problems related to the Colorado River is achievable under neart-term future meteorological circumstances [23]. Surely, governmental budgeteers will be pleased, as will taxpayers, and commercial circles will certainly take notice of persuasively influential new economic facts [24][25][26][27].…”