To: (Future) Secretary of Water,
The time has come to raise our national effort towards securing our current and future water demand by mobilizing a new federal mission; to finally and definitively make salt water our scalable, longterm, strategic source of sustainable freshwater. Not only are we suffering from aging water infrastructure and limited river flows, our imagination has failed to keep pace with the dynamism that supports the American economy. Elevated productivity can be created through a nationalized emphasis on water abundance. Indeed, the country that prioritizes technology for the generation of added water will be the country that leads the world in the climate era.
Our dependence on naturally available freshwater is being tested and for this reason we should act without hesitation to immediately establish a U.S. Department of Water (DOW). Water is not limited in the United States, only easily accessible freshwater is. Using Desalination, broadly defined as the generation of potable water from any unusable or salty source, we can tap into vast marginalized water resources. In 1952, when congress authorized the Department of the Interior, by way of the Saline Water Conversion Act, to establish the Saline Water Conversion Program, it was a concerted effort to focus the federal government on developing technology for the advancement of desalination. If we are waiting for a water crisis of historic proportions to build and deploy mass-scale desalination, it is upon us.
Responsibility for managing water infrastructure and water innovation is bifurcated under the Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Energy (DOE). Consolidating these agencies into a single department and increasing the annual budget would meld basic scientific research (e.g. the DOE’s Desalination Hub and USBR’s Desalination Program) with the build out of new water supply infrastructure for the next century. For example, a network of distributed desalination plants treating brackish groundwater would lessen demand on the Colorado River Basin by augmenting natural water supplies with decentralized desalination.
The innovations required for the conversion of saltwater to freshwater are well known (link), but they must be scaled and key techno-economic hurdles overcome. What energy source is ideal for power-intensive desalination? What downstream products can be refined from residual salt brines? Since water availability is critical for mining precious metals and cooling data centers, should we establish water-intensive zones using only desalinated water? This requires more than research, it requires thoughtfully deployed innovation.
To achieve this we must elevate water as a national priority by establishing a clear mission; ensuring our water security by dramatically increasing the supply of water through scientific innovation and technology deployment. The first step towards this mission is defining the frontier. Scientific progress is not an extension of the existing capabilities, but the creation of technology that leapfrogs legacy constraints. Water is no exception and we should expand the scope of our ambitions. What technologies will enable economical desalination at broad-scale? What environmental impact will the generation of several million acre-feet of additional water generation have? The U.S. Department of Water could be responsible for implementing a master plan for American water, centered on advanced desalination.
We are forming an Advanced Desalination Commission (ADC) to encourage an open dialogue on this topic and to further encourage the creation of a U.S. Department of Water. We hope this motivates members of the water community to strongly and seriously consider this proposition. Together, we can collectively manifest a future where limited access to water is a temporary human condition. In the historical words of John F. Kennedy, “if we could produce freshwater from saltwater at a low cost, that would indeed be a great service to humanity, and would dwarf any other scientific accomplishment.”
Sincerely,
Aaron Mandell, CEO, Wacomet Water Co., Acting Chair, ADC
CC The White House, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Energy, Commissioner of USBR