The Water and Salt Plan for the Salton Sea
By Jim Bates
The Salton Sea has fallen on hard times. Once a vacation playground, now a dried up wasteland, the Salton Sea has too much salt, and not enough water.
The Salton Sea Solutions, LLC has a plan to reduce the salt and increase the water. It starts with a small demonstration plant to prove out the “Sephton technology” that a Desalination Multi-Effect Distillation plant with a 90 percent water recovery rate, ten percent salt and no brine discharge. This demonstration proposal will draw water from the lake and the distilled water will be recycled back into the Salton Sea. The salt will be sold commercially to produce income from the project. Once the demonstration plant is up and running, and performing as expected, by recycling the pure water and selling the salt, the “prove out” has been successful.
The Demonstration Project will also have, initially fifty (50) mega flora trees to act as a visual screen on the property. In larger quantities the mega flora tree is a pollution remediation project to reduce emissions of CO2, PM10, PM2.5 and Methane from the air, and provide air and soil remediation.
As soon as the Demonstration Project has proven the successful application of the Sephton Technology, we should begin the construction of five (5) “Neptune” models (25 million gallons a day or 20,000 acre feet per year) to reduce the salinity of the lake. The five Neptune facilities could be constructed independently or simultaneously. The first could be situated on the Salton Sea Solutions property adjacent to Desert Shores using the solar gradient pond. Another will be constructed on the Torrez Martinez Desert Cahuilla Native American Reservation. The remaining three will be constructed on the other side of the lake utilizing geothermal energy.
The final piece to the water and salt puzzle at the Salton Sea is the construction of a water infrastructure project to import 900,000 acre feet per year of water from the Gulf of California or John Steinbeck’s “Sea of Cortez.” The most biologically rich body of water on the entire planet, this is the ideal place for the “Sephton Technology” because there is no brine discharge. The ocean intake flow will take place along the San Felipe highway. The tidal action will power the intake flow.
The Cerra Prieto Geothermal retooled installation will provide the energy to desalinate the 400,000 acre feet per year when the Salton Sea no longer needs 900,000 acre feet per year after a few years and drop to 500,000 acre feet annually to flow into the Salton Sea. Then pure water can be apportioned to Mexico, Arizona and Nevada. Additionally, water projects can be developed without harming the Sea of Cortez.
Category: feature, Historical, Local News, Nature
