Workers move a pipe in front of the 2,000 pressure vessels that will be used to convert seawater into fresh water through reverse osmosis in the western hemisphere’s largest desalination plant, March 11, 2015, in Carlsbad, California. Gregory Bull/APThe drought currently shriveling the West Coast comes with an irony that the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge would recognize. There’s water, water, everywhere out there—literally an ocean’s worth—but you can’t drink it or irrigate with it for the salt. That used to be an insoluble technical and economic obstacle. But now, with snowpacks at zero percent and reservoirs looking more like puddles, engineers in San Diego are preparing to hook up a new $1 billion desalinization plant that will provide enough water for 300,000 thirsty people each day. Read more.
