Why can't we turn seawater into drinkable water?

(Inspired by the dustbowl thread...) With all the technology advancement we have in this world, how is this not a possibility?

• It's very salty and full of fish poop.

• It takes extreme amounts of energy to desalinize significant amounts of water.

• Because Obama's BLAAAAAAAACK!!!!!!!

• We can and do (and have done for decades), but it's very expensive.

• There's a low-energy technology that's been developed using carbon nanotubes. Once it's cheaper to produce those, and as more people lose access to drinkable water, it'll become more popular.

• Will we see it done (on a large scale) in our lifetime?

• [quote]Will we see it done (on a large scale) in our lifetime? Considering that fresh water may become as valuable a commodity as oil in the next fifty years, probably, yes.

  The Voice of the Night

• It will happen about 5 years after it becomes critically necessary. Sooner if it's Los Angeles.

• Hell, they could have built a biggo water pipeline from the Mississippi River towards the Dust Bowl, giving many out-of-work folks a job building and bringing relief to the parched farmers. They should've asked me, I'da told 'em.

• There were plans for a desalination plant to be constructed in Greenport, NY, but I don't know if it was ever built. Greenport is on the north fork of eastern Long Island, not to be confused with Greenpoint, NY, which is in Brooklyn. I believe some Arab countries have built desalination plants. It is very expensive, but they have plenty of oil money.

• There's a desalination plant in Tampa.

  http://www.tampabaywater.org/tampa-bay-seawater-desalination-plant.aspx

  Tampon

• And just who's going to pay for all these fancy new destalination plants that everybody gets to drink from? Real Americans would drink salt water without any help.

  The%20Republican%20Party%20

• Better to limit excessive breeding. What happens to the salt from desalination anyway? Safe sex applies to breeding too- there are consequences to churning out children.

• [quote]What happens to the salt from desalination anyway? We could start pretzel stands outside the desalinization plants!

• R13, it's returned to the ocean. What happens is that they take in ocean water, feed it through a process that removes fresh water from the ocean water... the fresh water is collected, and the now saltier ocean water remaining is pumped back out to sea. It's not like they remove ALL the "stuff" from sea-water, leaving fresh water, and dried salt and impurities that they then have to dump.

• Israel is building a desalinization plant

  http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/06/us-israel-desalination-idUSTRE7B50V520111206

• El Paso gets 25% of its water from desalinization

• Most of the caribbean islands use desalinzation plants for fresh water. In there case it is more cost effective to have the plants rather then have to ship in all their drinking water. For them, it the cheaper option.

• I think the Caribbean islands get obtain the fuel for their desalinization plants from Trinidad and Venezuela. Low transportation costs. No. 6 bunker fuel is literally the bottom of the oil barrel and cheap.

• [quote]In there case it is more cost effective Oh dear.

• "El Paso gets 25% of its water from desalinization" El Paso is one of the major Southwestern cities which is secure in its water resources for the foreseeable future even under the drought conditions which it currently suffers. Advanced planning in the 80s has led to "water independence" for the city.

• How do they pay for it r21? Are taxes high?

• If can do that to seawater then we won't have to worry about the end of icebergs. We can lower the seas by drinking it.

• Agree with R1 both shows are LAME!

• Why can't we just build some windmills around a desalinization plant to provide the energy to power it?

• Because you'll get cancer and tinnitus.

• [quote] Agree with [R1] both shows are LAME! Which shows would those be, dear? Salty and Fish Poop?

• Why would they return the salt to the seas? Right now there seems to be the perfect ratio of salt to water and if they dump more salt into it, it will throw off an equation that sustains marine life.

• R38, compared to the volumn of the ocean, the amount they're adding back is negligible.

• Ok so the answer appears to be, Build a butt load of desalination plants in Kansas with a butt load along with a wind turbines to help power it. Solved, damn it. Oh wait, there's the Republicans.

• Um... where's the sea-water near Kansas?

• Way to ruin the brainstorm, R31.

• Duh, from the pipe coming down from Canada.

• With all the precipitation in places like NY and FLA, why would they need desalination plants?

  Naive%20in%20NorCal

• see "Waterworld"

  Tina%20Majorino%20

• question here: if you're stranded at sea, in movies I always see people screaming don't drink the water! wouldn't it be better to have a sip of ocean water than to die of thirst? why is this not the case? simply because there is salt in it? why would this kill you?

• I think salt dehydrates you more and quickens dying of thirst

• [quote]Considering that fresh water may become as valuable a commodity as oil it already is!

  israel%2C%20china%2C%20india%2C%20%20pakistan%2C%20Egypt%2C%20Korea.%20..%20.%20

• r36, read r37. Salt water will literally drive you mad while it quickens your death and causes immense pain.

• r31- We ship it like we do oil, coal, etc. Duh.

• They were pretty easy to build in Sim City.

• Ocean water is full of fish cum. Whenever I go snorkeling, I always take a shower to get all the aquatic semen off of me!

  SickEvilFuck

• Get me a 10 gallon copper pot, 7 ft. of aluminum tubing, and a big roll of cheesecloth.

  Rose%20Nylund%20

• We can. But, it's very expensive to do and to transport to places not by the sea. But, we certainly can. Expensive both in terms of energy and money.

• OP, Go to the marine store and buy a water maker. Most small boats that travel across the atlantic--or around the world--have one. Done.

• Back off bitches.

  Flipper

• You know one thing that's always amazed me .. we have the perpetual dual crises in this country of too much water in one place and too little in another. It has never dawned on us to THINK BIG and fix that. It has to the Chinese.

• Serioiusly. Some canals from the mississippi river basin that is forever flooding that branched out across the plains and down to texas would solve two problelms at once... syphon off all the excess water, and bring it to places that desperately need it.