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Summer Session Kansan
Friday, June 28, 1963
Industries Aided by Desalted Sea Water
By Leroy Pope
(Editor's note: This is the last of three dispatches on water conservation.)
NEW YORK — (UPI) — The interest of the American public in national water conversation is apt to center on desalting sea water, experts say.
That's because it's the most dramatic aspect and the one that holds out alluring prospects of dividends for investors in any company that develops a very cheap and practical process.
And, for many areas, desalting sea water and brackish water is the only possible way of creating new fresh water supplies big enough to support a growing population or support vital industries.
Moreover, the scientific and engineering progress made in water desalting since World War II already is substantial.
But, on a national scale, desalting never will be important, according to the American Waterworks Association and many scientists and economists.
THESE EXPERTS do not believe desalted sea water ever will be cheap enough for irrigated agriculture except for small scale truck farming in very special situations.
Gettings the cost of desalating water down to compare favorably with the cost of pumping fresh water from deep wells would not make the desalted water economically feasible for general use, the experts say.
The water still would have to be transported much too far in most cases. The cost of piping and the losses in transit soon would pile up too high.
All except a few sections of the country are within reach of as yet unused reserves of fresh water. And better methods of conserving fresh water supplies offer a greater net increase in available fresh water in most areas than does desalting.
It still costs several times as much to desalt water by the cheapest process as to pump fresh water from deep wells. And, in addition to the transport cost, there is the problem of disposing of the salts extracted from the sea water.
WHERE THERE is no heavy transport cost and no fresh water alternative is available, though, desalting pays off. Buckeey, Ariz., for example, has a desalating plant for brackish water turning out 650,000 gallons a day, 50 cents per 1,000 gallons, and the folks think it's reasonable. Costs of $1 to $1.25 a thousand gallons for desalting sea water at San Diego and Freeport, Tex., are considered feasible by industries
using the water. It is planned to increase capacities of these government demonstration plants from 1 million to 10 million gallons a day. That will cut the cost to about 65 cents a thousand gallons.
But the adoption of conservation practices by industries that use large amounts of water increases fresh water supplies much more and at vastly lower cost than desalting ever could do, because of the transport costs.
The scale of these savings is impressive. Professor Abel Wolman of Johns Hopkins University told a water conference at Atlantic City in 1960 about progress up to that time.
The steel industry managed to cut its use of water from 55,000 gallons for every ton of steel produced to around 2,000 gallons. The general paper industry uses 3,000 to 4,000 gallons of water per ton of paper against 7,000 to 10,000 formerly, and the kraft pulp industry cut its use from 45,000 to 9,000 gallons per ton of pulp. The cannery industry has halved its water use.
The Department of Agriculture claims many irrigation methods are wasteful and is getting farmers to change some of these methods. It says savings of up to 50 million acre feet a year ultimately are possible by more efficient irrigation.
And scientists say cleaning lakes and streams of useless water plants, which consume much water, can save 6 million more acre feet a year.
REDUCING RESERVOIR evaporation is another important way to save fresh water. The evaporation loss from reservoirs in the 17 western states alone is set at 15.6 million acre feet a year.
Reducing the problem to money, one water district estimated it could save $15 million in evaporation losses over the 45-year term of the bonds floated to build a reservoir by choosing a smaller site where the reservoir would be deeper and present less surface to the sun.
New Engineering Building Approaches Completion
The engineering department is in the process of moving into their new $1,900,000 building at 15th and Naismith Road. The east wing of the building has been completed and 80 per cent equipped, but the other half has not yet been released by the builder.
By Emery Goad
D & G
AUTO SERVICE
VI 2-0753
½ blk. E. 12th & Haskell
THE BUILDING has 57 office complexes with two to six offices in each complex, and ten large classrooms. Six of these classrooms will be permanent and the others will presently be used in the electrical department but can be easily converted to other uses when needed.
Landscaping and work on the grounds is currently being handled by the KU grounds department. Bids are also being received for the moving of heavy equipment from Marvin Hall to the new location.
Work on the building will be completed in time for the some fifteen to sixteen hundred students who are expected in the Engineering department next fall.
SUMMER WORSHIP
The new building will house the civil, electrical, and mechanical and aerospace engineering department.
Within the building are located offices, classrooms, a large and advanced hydraulic laboratory, and a student study room, all of which are air-conditioned. There will be no library in the building since the one in Marvin Hall will be remodeled.
First Presbyterian Church 9th and Vermont
- Air Conditioned-
THE NEARLY two million dollar building contains 102,000 square feet of floor space. In addition, 10,000 square feet of space will not be used at the present time because the terrain of the ground prevents it being completed at a reasonable cost. The building consists of the large laboratories in the west end and the east wing classrooms. The latter part is currently two stories and other floors may be added easily in the future.
Bids on the building were accepted in 1957 under the direction of the Building Planning Commission headed by Dr. D. D. Haines, of the Civil Engineering department. The actual work was begun in November of 1961.
First service — 9:00 a.m.
Sunday school — 9:45 a.m.
Second service — 11:00 a.m.
KANSAS UNION
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REV. HAROLD M. MALLETT, DD, Minister
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