Environmental Regulations-Inland and Coastal Desalination Case Studies

Abstract

Seawater and brackish water desalination technology has become an important and ever-increasing industry, which has contributed to the social, economic, environmental, and human health aspects. Despite the many benefits that water desalination has to offer, still challenging to all desalination plants is the environmentally sensitive effects attributed to the rejected brine discharge into the sea, which can very often severely damage the receiving environment, the air pollutant emissions attributed to the energy demand of the processes, the noise pollution and the use of land, among other. In order to promote a sustainable use of desalination technology, the environmental impacts of desalination facilities should be investigated and mitigated. This chapter provides an overview of environmental concerns of seawater and brackish water reverse osmosis desalinations plants, focusing on some Spanish cases studies, and describing the major impacts identified.