Study Supports Desalination

摘要

Anew report from the National Research Council underscores desali-nation's viability as a potential method for boosting the nation's water supply but says more research is needed to bring the costs down and to better understand the technology's environmental impacts. "Uncertainties about desalination's environmental impacts are currently a significant barrier to its wider use, and research into these effects-and ways to lessen them-should be a top priority," says Amy Zander, chairwoman of the committee that wrote the report, released on April 24, and a professor at Clarkson University, Potsdam, N.Y. But recent improvements in technology have lowered desalination's costs and energy requirements, which used to be prohibitively high. This could make desalination a more attractive option for communities struggling with water shortages, Zander notes. "Desalination is ready to become a larger part of the water portfolio," she says.