LAS VEGAS -- When it comes to water, the future is now. More than 7,500 desalting plants are in operation around the world, turning undrinkable water into a clean and clear supply.
Southern Nevada officials have always downplayed the potential of desalting operations to meet Nevada's water needs, but it will be tough to write it off now that a plant is up and running, paid for, in part, with your money. The plant near Yuma, Arizona is already churning out millions of gallons per year.
The plant was authorized in 1974, built in the early 90's but since then it's been largely ignored, especially by Nevada water officials who prefer pinning their hopes on a massive rural pipeline plan that critics call a 19th century solution.
What the Yuma plant is doing is a drop in the bucket, but the potential is clear. The valley leading into Yuma is breadbasket of sorts, covered with vast fruit and vegetable operations, producing bountiful harvests year round. It takes a lot of water to grow melons and other greenery in the desert, and for decades, vast amounts of agricultural runoff was essentially wasted, too brackish for human consumption.
Jennifer McCloskey is Bureau of Reclamation manager overseeing a sprawling and innovative plant created to strip the salt and crud out of all that farm runoff and turn it into clean, usable water.
The Yuma plant fired up in May as part of a year long demonstration project. Even running at 30-percent capacity, the plant is producing 29,000 acre feet of water, enough to supply the needs of nearly 120,000 people.
But ask McCloskey to say the project is a success and this is as close as you'd get, "The operation is proceeding well. We are on target for our recovery rates."
The lack of enthusiasm is odd, but not new. The plant, which cost $250 million to build, was finished in 1992 but sat unused, except for a brief demo. It cost $6 million a year just for maintenance.
Why not fire it up during a drought that has lasted 10 years?
"There was no need to operate the plant when we had a surplus," said McCloskey.
This subdued enthusiasm is also true for one of the three principal sponsors of the test run, the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which has always told Nevadans that water desalting is promising, but won't help until the far away future. SNWA even used public dollars to buy ads which downplay desalting as an alternative to a multi-billion dollar groundwater grab in rural Nevada. Too expensive, the agency says.
Former federal water planner Mark Bird says the Yuma plant proves these arguments don't hold water. The cost is already less than what would be spent on a rural pipeline.
"It's far less. It might be on the order of per billion gallons, on the order of three to four times less. It's not even close," he said.
Bird has long criticized local water agencies for ignoring the desalination option. He thinks the reasons are political not scientific. The Yuma experience will make it that much tougher to ignore.
During the test run, the plant is also investigating new filters and membranes that could reduce costs even more. If combined with clean energy sources, such as the solar plant across the road from the Yuma operation, there's great potential for environmental benefits as well.
"The fact that Arizona, California, Texas, Georgia and other places, a dozen countries around the world are investing in desalting tells us something," he said.
It's not known what will happen to the Yuma plant after its year long test run is over. Managers say it's going to need a lot of upgrades after sitting unused for so many years, assuming the sponsoring agencies, including SNWA, want to continue funding.
Just two months ago, a private company announced yet another breakthrough -- a new membrane that could reduce costs of desalting by 80-percent.
As Bird has noted, the Pacific Ocean is closer to Las Vegas than is the end of the proposed rural Nevada pipeline.
