Tellinghuisen, Stacy --- "Energy-Intensive Water Supplies" [2011] ELECD 1028; in Kenney, S. Douglas; Wilkinson, Robert (eds), "The Water–Energy Nexus in the American West" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: The Water–Energy Nexus in the American West

Editor(s): Kenney, S. Douglas; Wilkinson, Robert

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849809368

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: Energy-Intensive Water Supplies

Author(s): Tellinghuisen, Stacy

Number of pages: 13

Extract:

9. Energy-intensive water supplies
Stacy Tellinghuisen

9.1. INTRODUCTION

Over the last decade, western cities have experienced some of the fastest
population growth in the nation. For most cities, the cheapest, most
readily available water supplies have already been tapped, and water utili-
ties have increasingly looked to develop projects that require more energy,
like surface supplies pumped over longer distances, groundwater pumped
from greater depths and lower quality water that requires more intensive
water treatment. Indeed, the energy intensity of many proposed new water
supply projects in the Interior West rivals the energy intensity of the large
trans-basin water projects in California, which are notorious for their high
energy demands.
In the following pages, we profile new water supply projects that are in
the permitting, construction or operation processes. Figure 9.1 illustrates
both proposed and existing water supply projects in the Interior West.
Figure 9.2 compares the energy intensity of existing water supplies with
proposed projects. Many of these projects demonstrate broader trends in
new water supply development. In every case, energy is one of many ele-
ments that should be used to evaluate the benefits, impact or merits of a
proposed new supply project.


9.2. PROPOSED WATER SUPPLY PROJECTS

9.2.1. Arizona: Yuma Desalting Plant

Originally designed to address the high salinity of agricultural return
flows, the Yuma Desalting Plant (YDP) has operated for only limited
periods of time. The YDP treats saline return flows from the Wellton-
Mohawk Irrigation and Drainage ...