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Re: Water Desalinization

Posted by Dave H on August 18, 2010, 5:13 pm, in reply to "Re: Water Desalinization"
67.180.72.59

There are very strong nonporous rock formations between most aquifers inland, for instance the “La Tigre” that comes in on the south west end of town does not interchange water with the Los Ingenios drainages until it reaches near the valley floor and then the la Tigre water seeps into the ground and does not get within the cone of depression of our well before it seeps under town to the ocean.

Yes advanced use of Gray Water is a good way to offset uses, and recycled water does not present as much trouble as Desalination (desal). One of the problems with desal is that it is not only the salts that are left but lots of heavy metals even in Mexico. Mercury is very present due to atmospheric inputs from burning coal.

Not sure of any studies but the yield off of wells outside of the sandy coast that do not have access to a connected Estuary or River are usually very limited. The wells next to rivers draw off underflows and are always the highest yields. Inland areas with more clay/silt are less efficient and access to vast replenishing sources are very limited and not good for more than a few homes 90% of the time.

Alain you are correct, it is very rough on the disposal area. I think we get often into trouble when we try to fill our needs with only one source. If we trap water off roofs and rest our wells, recycle water and use gray water for landscaping and the like….. we can reduce the impacts and demands on our well. We are very much in trouble if our future depends on just that one well.

With Tamarindo using so much and their other wells upstream in Los Ingenious removing the water that would move down to the Estuary, the amount of water left for the Estuary/mangrove area is limited. We may be able to use the degradation of the Mangrove area as a way to limit or remove Tamarino’s use (I am not confused with how hard that might be, just offering an avenue although unlikely). Otherwise we definitely need to find other sources of our primary water.

Alain with your experience and others and my work with water districts and the State we might be able to work on some good options.

But if we try for just one source of water alone it will be very expensive. Usually nothing is left for the environment. Baja has possibly some options we could check out. Big uses limited sources there.

“Water is for fighting and Whiskey is for Drinking” Mark Twain
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