Desalination plants not only consume large amounts of energy and use up expensive coastal land, it turns out that they also pollute the sea. A study by "Globes" found that that the Ashkelon desalination plant, produces 6,500 cubic meters of fresh water a day, and discharges iron into the Mediterranean as a byproduct. The 100-million cubit meter a year plant is owned by the VID consortium, VID is consortium of IDE Technologies Ltd. and Veolia Water SA.
The Ministry of National Infrastructures plans to build a string of desalination facilities along the coast with a combined capacity of 750 million cubic meters a year. The facilities will discharge 3,000 tons of iron a year into the sea. Although seawater naturally includes iron, the Ministry of Environmental Protection is worried that the discharge of so much iron is liable to damage the marine environment, especially plants and fish.
During the reverse osmosis desalination process, the facility removes iron from the seawater before it its pushed through the desalination membranes that produce fresh water. Ministry of Environmental Protection officials from the Coastal and Marine Division told "Globes" that they were unaware that the Ashkelon facility discharges this iron into the sea, in the form of "red water", and that they were taken by surprise when they learned about it.
The ministry officials claim that VID was also taken by surprise by the amount of iron discharge. The Ministry of Environmental Protection is worried that the construction of other desalination facilities using reverse osmosis technology will result in a huge discharge of iron and that there is no research on the effect on the marine environment.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection intends to ask the Ministry of Finance to ensure that future tenders for desalination facilities will require the operator to substantially reduce iron discharges.
Veolia Water was unavailable for comment.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 27, 2008
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