Why aren't we building desalinization plants in the United States?

Question

Don't we need them?

Answer 1

Because Congress does not want to spend the money.

Answer 2

There are some desalination plants operating in Florida, but in most parts of the USA they aren't necessary because the availability of fresh water is adequate.

Answer 3

1) $$ per gallon of water made (plus capital and energy costs)

2) It tastes like c**p

Answer 4

Of course we do..but no one in the government thinks ahead

Answer 5

They are building some in California.

Answer 6

Both of the two leading techniques have drawbacks. “Multistage flash distillation” is expensive and uses lots of energy. “Reverse osmosis” using semi-permeable membranes produces freshwater at five times the cost of normal water processing.

In California there are some plants operating, but in Huntington Beach, I believe efforts to build one there were shot down by community resistance seveal years ago.

Answer 7

uh what for? water is free!

Answer 8

In most areas we do not need them. Water from Desalinization is very expensive and requires a lot of power/energy to operate.

Answer 9

A desalination plant is very expensive.  These plants also require huge amounts of energy to produce useable quantities of water.  

One only builds a plant when there's no other option besides sea water.

With these conditions, there's only a few places in the U.S. that can use a desalination plant.  One also needs a population base without an adequate water supply.  Fewer places still.

That population also needs to be willing to have a big oil or Nuke plant in their neighborhood to heat the water.  Public willingness for that is in VERY short supply.  

Nobody is quite that thirsty yet in the U.S.

Answer 10

Because at this moment there is no need for them and therefore no financial incentive