When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travels to New Delhi next month, he will bring a special gift for his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi — a Gal-Mobile water desalinization and purification jeep.
U.S. Geological Survey issued new reports stating that cyclical drought areas in California could be relieved by purifying the vast amounts of underground brackish (salty) water.
Santa Barbara has finally escaped being the last California community to suffer “extreme drought,” but it remains the poster child for blow-back from limiting water to limit growth.
Huntington Beach’s proposed water desalinization plant made the list of President Donald Trump’s top 50 proposed public-private infrastructure projects.”
California’s new $1 billion desalination plant, which transforms sea water into fresh water, has won an international award for technological and environmental achievement.
Desalinization has emerged as an answer to the state’s chronic water shortages. As the Orange County Register notes, desalinization would provide a near-infinite supply of water at only twice the price. The main objection of environmentalists is that desalinization uses up to 50% more electricity, meaning more fossil fuels might be burned to make water, setting back efforts to fight climate change. It is an objection that is looking less and less serious.
Looking back at the Republican victory in California’s 2018 gubernatorial election, we can see that the roots of the GOP sweep in Sacramento are traceable to the events of April 2015. It was then that the Democrats’ romance with Big Green Austerity Politics became a fatal embrace.
With the Sierra Nevada snowpack at its lowest level since 1950, California Governor Jerry Brown announced last week that he would implement the first mandatory water reductions in state history. But Brown also called on districts to streamline permitting practices for water projects, and to invest in new water infrastructure technologies. Brown’s comments amount to his first vocal support for widespread desalinization.