Taking the Plunge
One of the challenges in expanding
desal activities—according to the California Department of Water Resources
and its California Desalination Planning
Handbook, released in February 2008—
is that “the learning curve for many
involved in building these facilities is
steep. Serious delays and constraints
have been encountered in proceeding
with even demonstration projects. This
has resulted from challenges with
equipment supplies, contractors and
engineers, many of whom have limited
or no experience with large desalination facilities and attendant issues.”
Given municipalities’ general lack of
experience, many engage consultants
with desal expertise. “Project owners
will retain someone like us,” says Deck-
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er of CM2H Hill, “to do a feasibility
study and assess their water options.
Then we can help assess the competing
desalination technologies and RO membrane systems. All have their pros and
cons, and a different balance of capital
costs versus operating costs. A consultant helps you sort out what’s best for
your particular project.”
Next a municipality can engage an
engineer to design the system for getting water to and through the plant.
“As engineers,” Decker continues, “we
can also write performance specs and
let the different manufacturers—who
know what they’re doing—submit proposals for their parts of the system.”
All told, project owners can outsource
as much or as little as they wish. “
Consultants can do just the engineering—
or they can handle the engineering,
procurement and construction as a
package. And some can also do program management.”
Tom Morgan of ITT concurs that, as
a manufacturer, “We probably get a
50/50 mix between projects where we
build to the owner’s specifications and
projects where we receive perform-ance-based specs.“ At the end of the
day, however, municipalities “must
weigh the overall life-cycle costs of a
project and not just the upfront capital
costs,” he advises. “Your desalination
plant needs to produce over time and
generate revenue.”
Finding viable solutions for supplementing water supplies is a challenge
not only for U.S. communities but for
nations across the globe. “The World
Bank estimates that by 2025, half the
world’s population will live under
severe water stress,” reports Severn
Trent’s Marwan Nesicolaci. She warns
that unless sustainable solutions such
as desalination are developed, together
with the will and the resources to
implement them, “the growing shortage of clean water threatens to make
water, even more than oil, the cause of
political turmoil in the decades to
come.” VM
MARK WARD, SR., based in Greenville, SC, is a freelance writer who has authored more than 1,000
articles for trade and association publications.
Reach Ward at markward@messagemedia.us.
