Recently, Georgia announced some elaborate plan to build dams to help combat future droughts (as all politicians will promise when times are hard). But, wouldn’t desalination be a lot easier (and, with less impact to the environment)?
- Jinx
Desalination takes a lot of energy - whether it’s less impact on the environment depends on how green that energy is, I guess. In the US currently, not so much.
Georgia’s drought conditions are limited to the northern part of the state, Atlanta and parts north (specifically, the Coosa, and northern sections of the Chattahoochee, the Ocmulgee and Oconee river basins [map (pdf)]). Where would this area have access to salt water? Most of this area has elevations around 1,000 feet.
We don’t want de-salinated ocean water way up here, but we wish Florida and Alabama would makes some instead of sucking away our dam release. If we have a drought, whay can’t they, too? (answer: the Atlanta metropolitan area is over-developed, but if that didn’t stop Los Angeles, why should it stop Atlanta?)
Besides the issue of whether Atlantans can have swimming pools while Alabamans can’t have fire hydrants is the ecological impact. If we let the mussels die, we’ll all be choked in algea. Those mussels aren’t just the spotted owl du jour.