needed are too far inland for sea water desalina- 
tion to be feasible. One alternative is inland 
brackish water—but, at present, knowledge of 
these resources is very limited. Because the feasi- 
bility of inland desalination will depend greatly 
upon improved information as to availability and 
characteristics of inland brackish water resources, 
the need for regional and individual project studies 
and inventories is immediate. 
A start has been made to determine these 
inventories (OSW with the U.S. Geological Sur- 
vey), but this program should be accelerated and 
expanded. 
6. Computers 
The diversity of world-wide economic condi- 
tions necessitates consideration of many different 
costs for steam, power, interest, insurance, and tax 
rates (the last as they apply for Government or 
private customers). A tabulation of variables will 
yield about 80,000 different cases, requiring a 
computer to establish a suggested optimum design 
for each case. Such a program for multistage flash 
and vertical tube evaporator types of distillation is 
presently under way by OSW. 
E. Government-Industry Roles 
The U.S. Government’s future role will con- 
tinue to be one of encouraging increased use of 
science and technology to lower water costs. 
Nearing completion in San Diego is a very impor- 
tant facility for the OSW engineering development 
program, a module of a 50 million gpd multistage 
flash distillation plant. Several of these modules 
would make up a full-size plant. This provides an 
economical method of confirming the essential 
process and structural designs required for the 
efficient and economical design, construction, and 
operation of very large desalting plants. The 
experimental module will produce about 2.5 mil- 
lion gpd, using pumps, evaporators, and other 
components sized to 50 million gpd production.° ° 
Mr. Di Luzio has stated that OSW intends to 
increase its activity in brackish water areas and 
take a hard engineering look at the potential of 
desalting acid mine waters. This would comple- 
ment the effort on large plants:° 7 
5©7hid., p. 7-8. 
°7 Senate Hearings, May 1965, op. cit., p. 146. 
We propose to maintain a balanced program. This 
is what we keep repeating over and over again. We 
are not going to sacrifice reasonable expenditure 
of funds in these other areas which are also the 
responsibility of the Office merely to put on a 
spectacular. 
The desired role of the private sector as seen by 
OSW was expressed by Mr. Di Luzio during the 
1967 Senate hearings:° ® 
The private sector is involved in our cycle of 
development from the beginning. Most of our pilot 
plants and most of our programs are proposed by 
the private sector. In many cases, private firms 
have designed pilot plants. OSW can carry this 
technology up through the largest practical units 
to demonstrate, one, its technological capability to 
produce water; and two, the economics of the 
production of water. Industry will take over as 
soon as we have demonstrated this technology to 
our satisfaction, and to the satisfaction of the 
customer—which, if you will consider for a mo- 
ment will be government bodies of various kinds. 
These plants are not being bought by private 
individuals, they are being purchased by villages, 
towns, states, and federal agencies. We think that 
putting money into carrying this technology to the 
absolute proof of the economic feasibility of the 
process and the design of the hardware is the better 
way of spending our money, and as soon as we 
prove that, industry takes it from that point on. 
F. Conclusions 
1. Background 
The term desalting generally refers to obtaining 
usable water by removing salt from sea water. 
Perhaps equally as important, it also encompasses 
removal of such other impurities as those found in 
inland brackish water and pollutants from waste 
water. 
The U.S. Government has been in a substantial 
expansion phase of its desalting program, with 
increasing emphasis on engineering development 
through module and prototype plant construction. 
The program recognizes the needs in the United 
States and the world community, which include 
supplementing an inadequate water supply and 
58 Senate Hearings, March 1967, op. cit., pp. 9-10. 
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