Water

[sabu]

You could see this water shortage coming with the big new developments. Wonder how the sewage plant will keep up? The over-development of Bloody Bay has been driven by greed, foreign investment and corruption. It's time the local leadership starts acting to protect and preserve the natural beauty of Negril.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/l...wc-floundering

[Rob]

And as a follow-up to that article, the speaker quoted went on to explain the solution:

"According to Meggoe, money from the TEF could be used to develop a water-supply system at Roaring River in Westmoreland to facilitate Negril and outlying communities, providing approximately seven million gallons of water daily."

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/l...ils-water-woes

[njsem]

There's an old saying bigger isn't always better

[halfwaytree]

There's an old saying bigger isn't always better

If I had a nickel for every time I told a woman that ... .

[Odinson]

Curacao, albeit a lot smaller than Jamaica (160k residents, 240k visitors/year), gets all its drinking water from desalination plants. Takes a lot of energy and tastes fine although not as good as Jamaican tap water. The technology is getting better all the time.

[Rob]

Curacao, albeit a lot smaller than Jamaica (160k residents, 240k visitors/year), gets all its drinking water from desalination plants. Takes a lot of energy and tastes fine although not as good as Jamaican tap water. The technology is getting better all the time.

There are currently quite a few negatives regarding desalination besides costs. Here is an informative article:

"Desalination is a process by which salt and brackish water is pulled out of the ocean and run through a desalination and purification system to result in clean, drinkable water. Desalination technology is hailed as a positive answer to worldwide water shortages, and is being developed and encouraged in areas that are close to oceans but lacking in freshwater supplies. However, desalination is not a fail-safe process and carries with it many environmental repercussions. The disadvantages of desalination are causing many people to think twice before starting desalination projects.

Waste Disposal
As with any process, desalination has by-products that must be taken care of. The process of desalination requires pretreatment and cleaning chemicals, which are added to water before desalination to make the treatment more efficient and successful. These chemicals include chlorine, hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide, and they can be used for only a limited amount of time. Once they've lost their ability to clean the water, these chemicals are dumped, which becomes a major environmental concern. These chemicals often find their way back into the ocean, where they poison plant and animal life.

Brine
Brine is the side product of desalination. While the purified water goes on to be processed and put into human use, the water that is left over, which has a super saturation of salt, must be disposed of. Most desalination plants pump this brine back into the ocean, which presents another environmental drawback. Ocean species are not equipped to adjust to the immediate change in salinity caused by the release of brine into the area. The super-saturated salt water also decreases oxygen levels in the water, causing animals and plants to suffocate.

Ocean Populations
The organisms most commonly affected by brine and chemical discharge from desalination plants are plankton and phytoplankton, which form the base of all marine life by forming the base of the food chain. Desalination plants therefore have the ability to negatively affect the population of animals in the ocean. These effects are further developed through the disadvantages caused by desalination "impingement" and "entrainment." While sucking ocean water in for desalination, the plants trap and kill animals, plants and eggs, many of which belong to endangered species.

Health Concerns
Desalination is not a perfected technology, and desalinated water can be harmful to human health as well. By-products of the chemicals used in desalination can get through into the "pure" water and endanger the people who drink it. Desalinated water can also be acidic to both pipes and digestive systems.

Energy Use
In an age where energy is becoming increasingly precious, desalination plants have the disadvantage of requiring large amounts of power. Other water treatment technologies are more energy efficient."

http://sciencing.com/disadvantages-d...n-5961767.html

[Odinson]

There are currently quite a few negatives regarding desalination besides costs. Here is an informative article:

"Desalination is a process by which salt and brackish water is pulled out of the ocean and run through a desalination and purification system to result in clean, drinkable water. Desalination technology is hailed as a positive answer to worldwide water shortages, and is being developed and encouraged in areas that are close to oceans but lacking in freshwater supplies. However, desalination is not a fail-safe process and carries with it many environmental repercussions. The disadvantages of desalination are causing many people to think twice before starting desalination projects.

Waste Disposal
As with any process, desalination has by-products that must be taken care of. The process of desalination requires pretreatment and cleaning chemicals, which are added to water before desalination to make the treatment more efficient and successful. These chemicals include chlorine, hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide, and they can be used for only a limited amount of time. Once they've lost their ability to clean the water, these chemicals are dumped, which becomes a major environmental concern. These chemicals often find their way back into the ocean, where they poison plant and animal life.

Brine
Brine is the side product of desalination. While the purified water goes on to be processed and put into human use, the water that is left over, which has a super saturation of salt, must be disposed of. Most desalination plants pump this brine back into the ocean, which presents another environmental drawback. Ocean species are not equipped to adjust to the immediate change in salinity caused by the release of brine into the area. The super-saturated salt water also decreases oxygen levels in the water, causing animals and plants to suffocate.

Ocean Populations
The organisms most commonly affected by brine and chemical discharge from desalination plants are plankton and phytoplankton, which form the base of all marine life by forming the base of the food chain. Desalination plants therefore have the ability to negatively affect the population of animals in the ocean. These effects are further developed through the disadvantages caused by desalination "impingement" and "entrainment." While sucking ocean water in for desalination, the plants trap and kill animals, plants and eggs, many of which belong to endangered species.

Health Concerns
Desalination is not a perfected technology, and desalinated water can be harmful to human health as well. By-products of the chemicals used in desalination can get through into the "pure" water and endanger the people who drink it. Desalinated water can also be acidic to both pipes and digestive systems.

Energy Use
In an age where energy is becoming increasingly precious, desalination plants have the disadvantage of requiring large amounts of power. Other water treatment technologies are more energy efficient."

http://sciencing.com/disadvantages-d...n-5961767.html

What other water treatment technologies would work? I have a feeling turning brown water into drinking water would not be 'palatable' to most people.

This article talks about a few of the newer technologies available.
https://www.amtaorg.com/Water_Desali...Processes.html

This is the Carlsbad CA plant webpage. Lots of info about how it works, not so much about waste products. Not sure if there is anywhere in the world more concerned about the environment than the Country of California - my guess would be that they have mitigated most of the environmental concerns either with this state of the art technology or through other means.
http://carlsbaddesal.com/

[Rob]

What other water treatment technologies would work? I have a feeling turning brown water into drinking water would not be 'palatable' to most people.

This article talks about a few of the newer technologies available.
https://www.amtaorg.com/Water_Desali...Processes.html

This is the Carlsbad CA plant webpage. Lots of info about how it works, not so much about waste products. Not sure if there is anywhere in the world more concerned about the environment than the Country of California - my guess would be that they have mitigated most of the environmental concerns either with this state of the art technology or through other means.
http://carlsbaddesal.com/

The US EPA seems to disagree. They state "Wastewater treatment facilities in the United States process approximately 34 billion gallons of wastewater every day. Wastewater contains nitrogen and phosphorus from human waste, food and certain soaps and detergents."

https://www.epa.gov/nutrientpollutio...ons-wastewater

Most homes and businesses in the US handle their waste water this way.

In contrast all the desalination plants worldwide produce less than 23 billion gallons a day. USA water treatment alone processes one third more water than all desalination plants combined.

Interesting that you have to "guess" about the waste products at Carlsbad. Why don't they explain on their site more about this important issue?

Desalination is just not ready for prime time yet...

The Roaring River plant makes much more economic sense.

And waste water MUST be treated anyway. You can't just pump into the rivers or sea untreated. That is a dangerous lesson mankind learned the hard way.

[captaind]

Desalination is just not ready for prime time yet...

The Roaring River plant makes much more economic sense.

And waste water MUST be treated anyway. You can't just pump into the rivers or sea untreated. That is a dangerous lesson mankind learned the hard way.

Well said Rob. RR makes the most sense for supply. Disposal must be addressed.

We are after all the "land of wood and water"

Why we suffer for water is another issue <grin>

Cap

[Biggs of the week]

Has any improvements been made to the sewage plant to handle the increase of volume ? A lot mor usage with the number of rooms being added at the new development ? Where is that going ?