A recent development in a two-decade-long proposition was just finalized this may. This is a controversial 1.4 billion-dollar desalination plant to counteract drought in Califonia. At first glance it may seem like this plan would be highly beneficial to the entirety of the West coast though there is much more to it than meets the eye. This is primarily due to the massive environmental effects this plant would have on the delicate marine ecosystem on the California coast. This plant would pump in roughly 100 million gallons of seawater each day and produce approximately 50 million gallons of potable water back out. As this may not seem like a problem for the larger fish and other creatures that reside near this plant, it actually indirectly affects them. What it does directly affect is the absolutely massive amount of plankton living off of the coast. As the plant draws in an obscene amount of water, it also draws in thousands of tons of plankton into its pump each day as well. Even though the company that would have been building the plant (Poseidon Water) would have added 1mm diameter gaps in the mesh netting on the intakes of the pumps, it still would have killed all of the plankton that it sucked in, therefore, rendering it inedible for whales and all other creatures that consume them. However, this isn’t the only problem that the plant presents. It would also be dumping 50 million gallons of briny sludge back out into the ocean which would create a massive imbalance in the waters around the plant. Over time this would lead to the dead zone, a place where no marine life is able to survive due to the heavy imbalance of nutrients in the water. Overall, after much protest by environmental activists, the program was shut down.
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