[topher]

What I don't understand is that Texas has tremendous amounts of Natural Gas. Just set up some De-Salination plants using Natural Gas. Can this be so difficult?

This could be done for Dallas/Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin, as well as other major Texas cities (and not so major ones).

There would be a cost involved, but Salt Water can be found almost everywhere. When oil/natural gas is drilled for, there are places where there are pockets of Salt Water underground.

Not to mention the Gulf of Mexico...

[topher]

Thoughts?

[topher]

The following web link has a number of articles on de-salination:

http://www.waterefficiency.net/WE/articles.aspx?taxonomy=Desalination

[topher]

Here are a couple of articles from the "Water Efficiency" webpage:

Desalination Plant Using STW's Technology Is Treating 700,000 Gallons Per Day: STW says technology at West Texas golf course adapted from its oil and gas water reclamation technology can be used for large municipalities and other industries

Turning Gulf waters into drinking water focus of effort: General Land Office, Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority partner for groundbreaking research

[Tenacious 1]

Many (maybe most) waste water treatment plants produce potable water. That’s what they are for. They take sewage and make it safe for the environment (which is to say it is safe to drink). I’m sure this is simply a bureaucratic regulatory thing.

In industrial buildings that require a waste treatment plant, the waste water leaving the plants can be drank from the discharge pipes (at least initially). It tastes fine.

[TADSLOS]

Pretty ironic from a town that has a fake fresh water waterfall to match its name.

[tbw2]

Texas has a dry line that starts in East Texas and starts to phase out around Dallas. There, you can see the rich trees. Move west, and by the time you get to west Fort Worth 60 miles away, it is scrubland and dry savannah.
Part of the water shortage is supply - the area had two natural lakes plus the Trinity River 50 years ago. They’ve built a bunch of artificial lakes, but environmentalists stopped several projects to the south and east in the name of wildlife 20 years ago. Now, no new water supply is built but population is still growing.
We had enough water for three million - now there are six million. We can’t build new lakes, we can’t build pipelines to bring it down from Oklahoma, we aren’t allowed to send illegals home and ask others to stop moving in.
On the upside, around a third of the water is used in irrigating laws. Get people to rip out the pretty green laws that work on the East Coast but are water hogs in a dry area formerly known as the Great Desert, we’d have margin. Stop planting all these trees to look like home and mimic Arizona’s xeriscaping, and you have more water for people. Limiting the installation of swimming pools would help.
Recycling waste water for irrigation and, after lots of filtering, people could probably use it. But that shouldn’t be necessary yet.