Ambitious $3bn US-Mexico desal strategy evaluated

摘要

The US International Boundary and Water Commission, and its Mexican counterpart La Comision Internacional de Limites y Aguas (CILA), released a study this month assessing the opportunity for a seawater desalination scheme on the Sea of Cortez in Mexico that would cost at least $3 billion to build. The study assessed five possible desalination projects on the Sonoran coast of the sea - at possible sites between Puerto Pefiasco and Puerto Libertad - which could each supply at least 100,000 acre-feet (123 million m~3) of water per year to water users in both the US and Mexico (see table below). Black & Veatch and Libra conducted the study on behalf of a binational desalination work group which was formed following the adoption of Minute 323, which updated the Colorado River Treaty in 2017. The capital costs of each of the evaluated desalination plants would be in the region of $700 million, with conveyance infrastructure accounting for the bulk of the total project cost in each case. Operating costs were estimated in the range of $70 million to $120 million per year.