More info:
Most of the water in the TCEP system will be recycled through the plant, and Gjelde and Hodel say they’ve taken steps to reduce the plant’s water consumption. Rather than use water to condense the steam, they’ve invested in an expansive air-cooling system. Further, the plant uses a “zero discharge” system. Additionally, by recycling the wastewater, they expect to have no water discharge- and therefore no watershed pollution.
There was a controversy over a plant proposed to be built near Abilene, but from what I read they could only do it if Cap and Trade passed so they would get all those lovely “carbon credits” (or subsidies) - but the main complaint was the amount of water they would use in a very arid area. Midland/Odessa is drier than Abilene so I wonder what folks out there think of this?