Desalination
People who live next to the oceans must begin processing that water as their primary source. Present desalination methods are not capable of processing the billions of gallons necessary for human consumption. New methods of spectrum, sonic and other more natural methods of desalination are now available.
We continue construction of outmoded sewage and water treatment plants while many creative designs remain unfunded because the financial world lacks understanding of anything not in line with repetitious timeworn scientific procedures. The present water situation would be resolved were visionary individuals with capital willing to fund these exciting inventions. The billions of gallons of municipal effluent, which is presently being dumped into rivers and oceans, should be recycled for at least agriculture and outdoor municipality use. The technology is here to do this. The public needs to know this and to demand those in power concern themselves with the survival of people instead of catering to the pressures of greed, which controls present current funding. Water flows downhill unless dollars make it flow uphill.
Water, when exposed to large surface areas, evaporates at the rate of six feet per surface acre per year, especially in the dry regions where most of the irrigated products are grown. Dissolved solids do not evaporate. They accumulate in the soil. Sodium binds with dirt particles making impermeable clay, preventing water from percolating into root zones and water sloughs off the topsoil without penetrating the root system of the plants. History has repeated itself with the rise and fall of great civilizations, which have become prey to the buildup of salts in the soil. Even the great Sahara deserts were once fertile valleys supporting vast populations. Wheat belt regions of the United States and Russia are becoming Saharas in the making.
Vast sums of money have been invested in dams, irrigation canals, aqueducts and pumping stations to carry countless gallons of water to thirsty metropolitan areas bordering boundless oceans. Present desalination is expensive, being used primarily for extracting drinking water from seawater of ocean vessels and some manufacturing. Ancient mariners boiled water, collecting the evaporated water on plates. A small number of countries are using this process, which is called flash distillation. This is efficient for cities with large populations and no groundwater sources, but one of its major drawbacks is the disposal of brackish or salt water in inland bays.
A major breakthrough was made with reverse osmosis, which forced water through a micron mesh cylindrical core, small enough to hold back about half of the dissolved solids. For an isolated desert country like Kuwait or Curaçâo it is the difference between life and death. Most of the expense involves the cost of energy required to drive water through micro-porous media. In processing brackish or seawater, cores must be back-flushed and replaced fairly often, adding to the cost. Even in bays or small inland seas, such as the Bay of Aqaba there are problems with the disposal of brackish water, which can be as much as six times the volume of processed water.
Had a small portion of money and effort lavishly poured into gargantuan engineering endeavors been directed to finding a solution for a lower cost and more natural desalination almost all coast lines would now have an endless supply of fresh water at affordable prices.
An even more extensive breakthrough in desalination is waiting to be funded. It is inventions of both light and sound to mine specifically targeted ions from the water. Salts in ocean water are approximately 80% sodium; only sodium and calcium need to be brought down to levels safe for drinking. Requirements would be even less for agricultural use. As spectrum (light or laser) or frequency (sound) emitters concentrate on only one or two elements, using light and sound beams, large volumes of sea water can be processed using very little power, especially when compared to existing systems. Another approach is spin technology, advanced from the earlier experiments of Victor Shauberger, following nature in its path to purifying water. This would make it competitive with prevailing aqueduct drinking water supplies and low enough to compete with most agriculture rates. If specifically targeted elements are retrieved, their commercial value could defray a great deal of the cost of the capitalization and operational expenses.
The Bureau of Reclamation and the Corps of Engineers are consistently competing to outspend each other on huge dam, aqueduct systems, and engineering projects. A scientist who proposes the use of sound waves or light spectrum, little understood by financial authorities organizations and government agencies, spends his life searching for financial backing for those who understand neither him or her nor nor their their inventions. Billions of dollars are daily expended to sell large-scale ‘cement, steel and chemical’ sewage and water treatment plants based on technology our grandfathers used.
Hinley Biline and Gordy Jordahl