Desalination plants are the solution to the Southwest water crisis, and the first one should be built is on the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. By treaty, Mexico is guaranteed 1.5-million-acre feet of water from the Colorado River. The Sea of Cortez is connected to the Pacific Ocean and is filled with salt water. If the United States helped Mexico build a desalination plant like the one in Carlsbad, California, it would give Mexico a secure source of fresh water and reduce the amount of water it needs from the Colorado River.
That would be part of the solution. Long term, as Scott Cameron, acting commission of the Bureau of Reclamation, has said, “Imagine … a string of six or even a dozen desal facilities operating along the California coast” (June 5 Review-Journal). It makes no sense to transport water hundreds of miles to the San Diego and Los Angeles areas when both cities are on the Pacific Ocean.
While California has the Pacific Ocean, the rest of the states on the Colorado River basin are critically dependent on the Colorado. But California has refused to build any more desalination plants. It’s going to be up to the federal government to force them to do so.
