1S8 



Fresh water is becoming an increasingly more valuable natural resource. 

 The world's largest experimental desalting unit, producing some 2.5 

 million gallons of fresh water per day at the Offlce of Saline Water's 

 San Diego Test Facility, is designed to provide data for desalting plants 

 of the future. 



The significance of desalination lies not in 

 the average cost of producing water, but in 

 the incremental costs. Even in the semiarid 

 western States, ground and surface sources 

 provide water at lower average cost than now 

 appears likely for any type of desalination. 

 But as increasing numliers of people move 

 to the Pacific coast, the problem of providing 

 additional increments of water will become 

 acute. One of the major advantages of de- 

 salination is the ability to locate plants in 

 the areas of greatest need and to produce 

 water and electricity in dual-purpose power 

 plant-sea water conversion complexes. Other 

 types of desalination plants, particularly 

 those processing brackish water, can provide 

 modest supplements to the water supplies of 

 small and medium-sized urban areas in 

 volumes adjusted to population growth. 

 Desalination, therefore, may prove to be a 

 more flexible way of adding water supplies 

 in the Southwest and one requiring less 



capital investment than the only other known 

 alternative — massive interregional water 

 transfer projects. 



Desalination also can be used to purify 

 2>olluted as well as brackish water. Con- 

 versely, the consequences of discliarging the 

 effluent of desalination into coastal waters 

 must be studied carefully by the Coastal Zone 

 Authorities before large desalination plants 

 are installed. 



The Commission finds that the desalina- 

 tion program is being conducted in a satis- 

 factory manner. Research and development 

 now underway reflect a close, effective part- 

 nership among Federal, State, and local gov- 

 ernments and the academic community. More 

 useful attention covild be given to such sec- 

 ondary applications of desalting processes as 

 extracting chemicals through concentration 

 of brines. Although progress in achieving eco- 

 nomic teclmology for large plants having 

 capacities above 25 million gallons per day 



