Ocean desalination –– a costly and energy intensive process that converts seawater into drinking water –– is being hailed as the solution to water supply problems. But ocean desalination provides a new opportunity for private corporations to own and sell water and has the potential to create more problems than it solves.

Ocean water desalination can be greater than ten times more energy intensive than other options and can be three or more times expensive what it costs to produce drinking water from traditional supplies. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, water intake structures on power plants, which are very similar to planned desalination intakes, kill at least 3.4 billion fish and other marine organisms annually. A number of public health experts have expressed concern that new contaminants could end up in our drinking water. Contaminants such as boron, algal toxins (for example, red tide) and endocrine disrupters are found in ocean water and are concentrated through the desalination process.

Given these problems, Congress should be looking for ways to support water conservation, not ocean desalination. Unfortunately, certain members of Congress are looking to promote ocean desalination and your Representative needs to hear that this is unacceptable. 

In August 2007, Representatives Becerra of California and Porter from Nevada introduced the ‘Clean Renewable Water Supply Bond Act of 2007,’ which would provide federal subsidies for new water supply technologies.  The bill singles out ocean water desalination for federal support, even though this technology is neither renewable nor clean.

Working together, we can get Congress to substantially strengthen the bill to ensure that facilities befitting from federal subsidies do not exacerbate environmental problems, such as global warming, and that ensure that water conservation and efficiency measures become a priority. Private companies seeking to profit from supplying drinking water should not be eligible for federal subsidies.

Send your Representative an email telling him or her that conservation and efficiency measures need to be exhausted before taxpayers foot the bill for the biggest and dirtiest, wasteful technologies, such as certain seawater desalination facilities.

Learn more about desalination here.