California water officials have approved $34.4 million in grants to eight desalination projects across the state, including one in the East Bay city of Antioch, as part of an effort to boost the water supply in the wake of the state's historic, five-year drought.
The money comes from Proposition 1, a water bond passed by state voters in November 2014 during the depths of the drought, and it highlights a new trend in purifying salty water for human consumption: only one of the projects is dependent on the ocean.
Instead, six of the winning proposals are for brackish desalination and one is for research at the University of Southern California. In brackish desalination, salty water from a river, bay or underground aquifer is filtered for drinking, rather than taking ocean water, which is often up to three times saltier and more expensive to purify.
加利福尼亚州，2018年1月31日—加州官员批准了3440万美元的赠款, 用于全国八个海水淡化项目, 其中包括位于东湾的东海湾市, 这是该州在经历5年干旱后积极推动供水的一积极举措。这笔资金来自于2014年11月在干旱最严重时期由州选民通过的一份水债券, 它突出了在净化咸水方面的新趋势: 只有一个项目依赖海水进行净化。
相反, 其中6个项目是针对于咸水的淡化，1个项目是针对南加利福尼亚大学的研究。在咸水淡化中, 河流、海湾或地下含水层的咸水被过滤饮用, 而不采用海水, 因为海水的含盐量通常是其他水体含盐量的3倍，其净化成本更高。
(AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi, File) In this Sept. 4, 2015 photo is the Carlsbad, Calif. desalination plant. America’s largest seawater desalination plant, the $1 billion facility produces 50 million gallons of drinking water for the San Diego area each day, but at a cost double the price of other sources
该照片拍摄于2015年9月4日，位于加利福尼亚州卡尔斯巴德市的美国最大的海水淡化厂，这个价值10亿美元的水厂每天为圣地亚哥区域的居民提供5000万加仑的饮用水，其成本是普通水厂的两倍。
