Marin County California has a dilemma. You see, the Marin Water District was recently the first in the nation to commit to a global warming pollution reduction goal. The district will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent from 1990 levels (or 20 percent below current levels) by 2020, mostly by implementing energy efficiency measures and switching to renewable energy.

“Good for them,” you say. “But what’s the dilemma.”

Well, Marin County has been considering a proposal to build a salt water desalination plant. Desalination is wildly energy intensive. The already controversial plant, which will cost at least $111 million, could more than triple the water district’s energy use.

“The desalination plant's use of energy could be equivalent to 60,000 service connections, or customers, continuously burning a 100-watt light bulb around the clock, every day, consultants estimated.” – Marin Independent Journal

It’s way past ironic that cities concerned about drinking water shortages in drought, which may be worsened by global warming, are even considering technologies like desalination, whose emissions could make global warming worse. It’s especially outrageous in Marin which is also concerned that sea level rise could inundated its coast (right).

    Creative Commons Licensed Flickr Photo
    Originally uploaded by Write from Karen.

This week, Mother Nature saw fit to evaporate a bunch of the ocean into clouds and then dump it in the form of snow over much of the United States. That snowfall will feed mountain streams or trickle into the bedrock and recharge aquifers when it melts this spring – part of the earth’s hydrologic cycle that, among other things, turns ocean water into drinking water for people. But, there are some corporations that would rather eliminate Mother Nature as a middle(wo)man, oh, and have the taxpayer subsidize them to do it.

One of our staff nearly fell of the treadmill at the gym when GE’s latest Eco-imagination greenwashing* ad promoting taking the salt out of ocean water appeared on the TV monitor over head. The ad featuring exuberant Norwegian fishermen (see fishing) left out a few crucial facts.

Even the most expensive advertising firm can’t change the fact that the industry isn’t nearly as elegant as Mother Nature and desalination plants pose environmental threats to coastal ecosystems, are energy hogs, and are extremely expensive. What’s more, there may be chemical byproducts of desalination left in drinking water that we aren’t even considering because the EPA’s drinking water regulations were designed for the kinds of contaminants found in rivers and groundwater.

*No, they haven’t gotten the PCBs out of the Hudson yet.