Saltwater corrodes firefighting equipment and may harm ecosystems, especially those like the chaparral shrublands around Los Angeles that aren’t normally exposed to seawater. Gardeners know that small amounts of salt – added, say, as fertilizer – does not harm plants, but excessive salts can stress and kill plants.
I would imagine the thousands of cubic kilometers of freshwater currently entering the ocean from global warming far outbalances the little water we take from desalinization, and the net effect even if we put that salt back is quite a bit lower salinity.
For sure. All the freshwater needs in the world is soo tiny in comparison to the oceans that it would be completely impossible to even measure a rise of salinity in the oceans if we were to desalinate all our freshwater and dump the brine in the oceans. However, we can’t feasibly distribute the brine all over the oceans, so it would increase salinity locally and kill everything there.
Current regulations have outfall systems that dilute it below harmful levels as it’s dumped, plus there’s usage of the salt waste for chemical production, including chemicals used in the desalinization process.
Yes. But at the same time, we’re litteraly mining for salt, because it’s cheaper.
Actually, we’re also desalinating for salt. Here’s some evap ponds in San Diego.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ncqgfQLsNpAGeExq5
There’s a bike trail that goes along side and cuts straight through those ponds I used to ride out to the Silver Strand when I lived in North Park.
Was super cool to see the ponds change week over week. But holy hell do they stink. Not as bad as some of the brackish mud flats around the Puget Sound, but they definitely have an aroma.