Here's some more proof
that desalination is less costly than the Southern Nevada Water
Authority (SNWA) watergrab pipeline:
The Carlsbad Desalination
Plant, in Southern California, recently raised 922 million dollars
for the construction of the project. They intend to be producing 50million gallons of fresh water (from salt water) a day by 2016. That
is the equivalent of 56,000 acre feet per year.
On the other hand, the
SNWA intends to spend 15 billion dollars on a pipeline
network to steal water from Rural Nevada – that will acquire them
about 160,000 acre feet per year (with the present proposed wells –
if the drought ends).
Unfortunately, the numbers
aren't as simple as this example. But from this example; it becomes
obvious that desalination is well worth seriously considering.
...For a number of years,
SNWA has been telling us that the watergrab pipeline would only
cost 3 to 3.5 billion dollars. But, when required by law to tell the
truth; SNWA reported to the Nevada State Engineer that the watergrab
would actually cost 15 billion dollars. (That's actually only twice
what they had been telling us because the 15 billion dollar fee also
includes finance charges.)
The Carlsbad Desalination
Plant costs likely do not include finance charges either. So, we
could assume that since finance charges approximately doubled the
watergrab construction costs, the Carlsbad Desalination Plant will
likely cost in the neighborhood of 2 billion dollars.
OK... to get approximately
the same amount of water from desalination using Carlsbad
Desalination Plant technology would cost about 6 billion dollars.
6 billion dollars vs.
15 billion dollars
This information infers
that watergrab water will cost between two and three times
what desalination costs. And the price of desalination just keeps
getting cheaper.
The projected cost of the
water from the Carlsbad Desalination Plant is between $2,014 and
$2,257 per acre foot. I have never seen an estimate for water cost
from the watergrab. Personally, I don't think SNWA wants us to know
this. Because of the SNWA history of not quite telling the whole
truth, (remember the 3.5 billion dollar cost story from a couple of
paragraphs ago) I wouldn't bother to trust their numbers anyway. But
we can guesstimate.
For an example; SNWA has
paid as high as $9,865 an acre foot from water from Virgin Valley
Water District! There is no way SNWA will sell that water for $2,000
an acre foot. My warning to Las Vegans; expect very very high water
bills.
Now of course; energy
costs are high for desalination. But SNWA never mentions the cost of
pumping water half way across the 7th largest State in the
Nation. Oh, you thought that $15,000,000,000 was all Southern
Nevadans would have to pay? No. The energy costs will be horrendous.
And SNWA has a record of about 30% cost overruns on their
construction projects. Which means a city will be
burdened with more like 20 billion dollars plus billions in energy
costs.
Oh, and by the way; the
people of Las Vegas already have enough water for their present
population. The people of Las Vegas are being conned into paying for
water for growth – that mean's Las Vegans will be paying for the
rest of their lives for water for someone else!
If SNWA were to pay for
desalination facilities on the Pacific Coast in exchange for more
water from the Colorado River, not only would the water be much
cheaper, but no pipeline would be necessary.
Don't believe the “Shock
Doctrine” hype. The Colorado River won't dry up. Even with less
flow, there is still plenty of water to bargain for. And if the
Colorado River were to dry up, the water in the Great Basin would be
a critical contingency safeguard. My advice to Las Vegas; save the
underground water for when you really need it. Make
more fresh water. Obviously, then there will be more water.
And if SNWA were to pay
for desalination facilities off the coast of
California, environmental damage to the Coast would be negligible.
With the cost savings of
desalination, SNWA could offer California more water at no expense to
Californians.
With
desalination done right; for less money, everyone could
have more water.
Personally, I think there
should be a National policy to encourage desalination to benefit all
communities along our waterways.
