Desalination means more water but at what cost?

Desalination means more water but at what cost?

Editor,

Mr. Leger in his letter (http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/l1-062008.cfm) to the editor correctly points out that there is water-water-everywhere (my words, not his). Desalination may become the ultimate answer, but it is not by any means the answer as long as we have to burn fossil fuel to make it.

The electric motors that force water through the membranes in a desalination plant are massive and numerous. As an example, the largest single consumer of electrical power on Marco Island is the R.O. (reverse osmosis) plant that treats only half the drinking water needed for the populace. And the water is from brackish (less salty) wells and not the sea.

Until we can produce clean electricity, let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that our microwave doesn’t put a little puff of smoke into the air every time we cook a hot dog.

Ronald J. Welebny
The King Group
Fort Myers

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