Letter: Desalination?

Recently I’ve seen numerous articles in the paper talking about the desalination of sea water as being part of the answer to our water shortage in the southwest, but no one is talking about the huge environmental impact. This would, most likely, be a reverse osmosis facility located at the north end of the Sea of Cortez. These systems draw in sea water and produce potable water. However, for every gallon of potable water, they also produce, at least, a gallon of brine which is much saltier than sea water. This brine, and chemicals used in the RO process, would then be dumped back in the sea. The Sea of Cortez is already more saline than the open ocean due to high levels of evaporation and the fact that we have shut off the Colorado River, so putting this contamination in this delicate environment would be a disaster and should not be considered.