I wonder if this would be cheaper than just paying the water rightsholders not to use the water?
If the Salton Sea doesn't have a steady input (from snowpack? not familiar with it), doesn't desal mean we're really just expanding the unsustainable use of the Colorado, maybe delaying it another few decades, but ultimately still growing more and using more water than its watershed can naturally sustain -- especially as climate change increases?
I think the fundamental problem here isn't that we need to make more freshwater out of brine, but that the California (and other) water rights are set to levels that cannot realistically be maintained. The law needs to change even if that hurts the grandfathered rightsholders; there just isn't the same amount of water anymore.
If the Salton Sea doesn't have a steady input (from snowpack? not familiar with it), doesn't desal mean we're really just expanding the unsustainable use of the Colorado, maybe delaying it another few decades, but ultimately still growing more and using more water than its watershed can naturally sustain -- especially as climate change increases?
I think the fundamental problem here isn't that we need to make more freshwater out of brine, but that the California (and other) water rights are set to levels that cannot realistically be maintained. The law needs to change even if that hurts the grandfathered rightsholders; there just isn't the same amount of water anymore.