MIT engineers and collaborators developed a solar-powered device that avoids the salt-clogging issues of other designs. Engineers at MIT and in China are aiming to turn seawater into drinking water with a completely passive device that is inspired by the ocean, and powered by the sun. In a pap
Take out salt water -> separate freshwater from brine -> use the fresh water -> combine cleaned wastewater with brine -> reintroduce. Seems pretty balanced to me, at least by human standards. The salt isn’t dumped down a mineshaft.
Desalinization plants dumping the brine straight back into the ocean, raising the concentration of salt in the region and poisoning the local wildlife, that’s something I’ve heard of happening, but it sounds like this system is intended to be way smaller, operated at a household level. People dumping the brine into the dirt, sterilizing it, or in local streams could be a problem.
I don’t know, it just seems like desalinization (not necessarily this version) is more of an effort towards balance than endlessly draining aquifers or damming rivers.