Bordering the perimeter of the US (like a mile or so out) There was a giant filter, it's like a wall made from multiple coffee filters. When the sea water goes through it, the salt gets filtered out (sea salt = export) and the incoming water could be fresh, making beaches more pleasurable. Then companies could make pools of this sea water and boil the impurities out of it and bottle it (bottled water = export).
The only problem is products like coffee filters don't filter salt water. And any salt water purifcation system on a large scale like that, just isn't worth it economically unless your in areas that lake water....ie the middle east.
well besides the point that a coffee filter wouldn't work, ur concept could have unintended consequences. This type of thing could destroy ecosystems, which in turn could hurt shore economies such as fishing. I like where ur heads at tho, we do need to clean up our waters. but just getting rid of the salt won't help.
I used coffee filter as an example, i'm sure there's a material that would work, maybe an ultrafine substance that is solid but allows liquids through. And for damaging ecosystems, at the rate used in this system, the salt would decrease so slowly, in a 100 years only a slight salt change will be seen, and when the whole ocean is fresh, fish will have adjusted.
[quote name='"Nutbust"'] I used coffee filter as an example, i'm sure there's a material that would work, maybe an ultrafine substance that is solid but allows liquids through. And for damaging ecosystems, at the rate used in this system, the salt would decrease so slowly, in a 100 years only a slight salt change will be seen, and when the whole ocean is fresh, fish will have adjusted.[/quote] Fish will have adjusted? So it will take a few million years..... lol
I dont think he ment taking the salt water out of the ocean would effect ecosystems.... although I'm sure it would, I think salt has something to do with regulating temps in ocean water. But I think craiggers ment by damaging ecosystems was just the damage these giant huge filters would cause, just by being there. You'd have these giant filter systems all over the coasts of america... they would disturb fishing and ocean wild life migrations, breeding areas, nesting area, etc etc. coast lines are some of the most biodiverse and populated ecosystems. Throwing down miles and miles of filters of any types is going to effect those ecosystems.
oh... and there are things that can make salt water into drinkable usable water. it's just not a simple process and it takes giant desalination plants to convert ocean water to drinking water on a large scale.
Maybe not spanning the entire US coast, but why not have one set up on a beach near an African village in need?
they already try to do that with desalination plants in africa and the middle east. It's just usually not cost effective. But yes, if some one could invent some type of low cost, east to run/install, desalination filters, then that would be great for drought ridden countries.