Desalination Plant Begins Operation in Tampa

Posted by Hemos on Monday January 6, 2003 @05:27AM from the you-gotta-start-me-up dept.

ambisinistral writes "The Tampa Tribune reports that the first commercial desalination plant in the U.S. is set to begin operations today. By March the plant is expected to be operating at full capacity, producing 25 million gallons of fresh water a day (10% of the water currently provided to the area from well fields). There are ecological concerns about returning highly saline water from the plant back into Tampa Bay. Proponents of desalination claim the natural tide cycle will effectively flush the bay of the saline rich discharge, while opponents of the plant feel the ecology of the bay will be badly damaged. Both sides plan on strict monitoring of the situation."

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Why dump it??? by eggstasy · 2003-01-06 05:54 · Score: 1, Redundant

Why the heck are they dumping it? Why not sell the salt? Around here, salt is generally obtained in much the same way it has been obtained for thousands of years, by letting sea water evaporate. The only reason I can come up with for them not to sell the salt is that said water is heavily polluted and maybe it would be hard to clean??