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Long term fresh water security is imperative for our future, and we have an opportunity of

geography to address this to all of our benefit. The oceans we border can provide all the
freshwater we need once desalinated. We can achieve freshwater independence. But energy
intensive osmotic processes on such a scale are not the way. Older, simpler technology is
available and economic: solar distillation.

Free solar energy can evaporate seawater, leaving salt and freshwater. The massive amounts of
salt remaining are inconsequential in the scale of the ocean and the draw of freshwater is also
insignificant, as evident by the generation of clouds. We fill our landfills with enough glass to
surface huge still operations. I envision offshore coastal stills, pumping water inland to recharge
our groundwater and reverse the intrusion mentioned, then onward to our fields, then on to the
population centers. There could easily be enough to recharge the slope watersheds. The power
for pumping the water can come from wind, wave, and direct solar energy capture. Far fetched? I
think not.

The distillation is intended to be offshore. I've come to learn many opponents of wind energy
find windmills a visual blight... go figure. The ocean horizon is 17 miles. Visibility seldom
reaches this far. The panes of glass or lenses need only be higher than the largest ocean swells.
The use of wave energy would be invisible for powering the freshwater relocation to the shore.
Importantly, the system would be continuous: every illuminated second of every century.
Freshwater would be recovered all during the "dry" seasons. A diagram in cross-section might
look like this:

Environmental impact would be effectively nil. Temperature and evaporative loss of surface
waters would be miniscule in relation to the vastness of the ocean. Similarly, increasing salinity
immediately below the collectors would be diluted and inconsequential compared to the vastness
of the ocean, as currents redistribute waters continuously. The failure of any collecting panes

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would drop glass back into the ocean, completing the cycle from sand to glass to sand again. The
visual blight could be minimized.

The design envisioned, engineers and contractors would be needed. Workers to build the stills,
reclaim the glass, and build the distribution systems would be needed. Excess capacity could be
used to generate revenue by providing freshwater inland. The original finance for such is
daunting, so a demonstration project is needed.

Success of the demonstration project would encourage private development, and competition
would keep costs real. A state could legislate a requirement that a certain percentage of
recovered freshwater must be donated to replenishment of the groundwater reserve to be
permitted to participate in this industry.

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