Recently introduced bipartisan legislation would provide up to $200 million in payments to facilities that are actively converting seawater or brackish water into fresh water.
The bill (H.R. 3834) would establish a program within the Department of Energy to provide payments under a competitive process to qualified facilities. Payments would provide incentives to communities to invest in desalination infrastructure for municipal and industrial use, thus making the technology less expensive in the future.
In 1990, the cost to desalinate an acre-foot of water was about $2000. An acre-foot equals 325,851 gallons of water.
Today, that cost is about $900 per acre-foot, while the cost of importing water has risen to about $500 per acre-foot.
The proposed legislation would provide payment of 62 cents per thousand gallons of water that are produced and sold form qualified desalination facilities that go into operation after the bill is enacted. The funds would be appropriated from fiscal years 2005-2015.
Source: WWEMA
