York City involving 100 to 300 med facilities. The 
metropolitan areas of eastern Pennsylvania, New 
Jersey, and New York City experience cyclic 
drought during which the water supply is inade- 
quate to meet demands. The study indicates that 
appropriately placed desalting plants in this size 
range, integrated with the existing water system, 
could provide the additional supply needed. 
One of the most ambitious studies is that being 
conducted jointly with Mexico under the auspices 
of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Water 
requirements of portions of the states of Baja 
California and.Sonora in Mexico and of California 
and Arizona, with needs for electrical power, are 
being projected through 1995. At present, parts of 
this area are irrigated with water from the Colo- 
rado River and from underground aquifers. It is 
anticipated that the prospective dual-purpose, 
nuclear-powered electric generation and one bil- 
lion gallons per day desalting plant will satisfy the 
power needs as well as providing irrigation water 
to irrigate the vast arid region and to support 
growing municipal and industrial needs. Additional 
comments on the possibilities of desalination for 
irrigation are made in Subsection C, Projection of 
Water Costs. 
c. Role of Membrane Processes It is predicted 
that within the next 10 years numerous inland 
communities in the United States may have to 
shift to some new, more effective form of water 
purification for their progressively more brackish 
water supplies. Estimates indicate that over 3.5 
million people in 1,150 U.S. inland communities 
have water supplies exceeding 1,000 ppm total 
dissolved salts; over 6,000 communities with a 
population of more than 40 million have waters 
that do not meet the 500 ppm Public Health 
Service recommended water standard.** 
Dr. Donald F. Hornig, Director of the Office of 
Science and Technology, in testimony before the 
Senate pointed out:*° 
One of the complicating features of research on 
desalting brackish and waste waters is the wide 
diversity in the chemical composition of these 
waters. A process which is highly successful in one 
application may encounter serious difficulties in 
others. That is not an insurmountable obstacle, 
35 Water Desalination Report, Vol. IV, No. 24, June 13, 
1968, p. 2. 
3 Senate Hearings, May 1965, op. cit., p. 31. 
Figure 61 
DESALTING CONSTRUCTION STARTS IN 1967 
| 
Continent or Country 
Number of Plants 
Plant Capacity 
(MGD) 
United States and Its Territories . 13 10.63 
Canada 1 0.20 
Mexico 1 7.50 
Bermuda : 1 0.10 
St. Martin/French 1 0.13 
Honduras 1 0.17 
Gibraltar a: 1 0.23 
Europe (Continental) 7 14.10 
England and Ireland . 3 1.24 
Australia 1 222 
Middle East : 10 15.72 
Ascension Island/British 1 .03 
Canary Islands/Spanish . 1 5.28 
Asia 3 2:33 
Grand Total 45 58.38 
Source: Information supplied by OSW. 
VI-201 
