Water. desalination + reuse

RESEARCH desalination along the Israeli shoreline should be examined, in addition to routine monitoring, especially as two additional ���mega��� plants are under construction at Soreq and Ashdod, which are expected to add 250 million m3/year of desalinated water by 2015. By 2020, SWRO desalination will be more than doubled, with 48% of the brines discharged within 40 km, between Ashkelon and Palmachim. The possibly synergetic impacts of discharging brine and desalination chemicals together with cooling waters and their complement of residual chemicals should be carefully examined and compared with ���stand alone��� desalination discharges. We recommend adding new measurements of water quality (ie, primary and bacterial production and phytoplankton numbers) to the routine SWRO brinedischarge monitoring, and positioning the monitoring stations based not only on geographical position but also on in situ temperature, salinity and visual examination. Moreover, impingement and entrapment should be studied as well as the benthic communities at the saline and warm ���oasis��� formed in the area. ACknowlEdgEmEntS The monitoring at the Palmachim site is funded by the Via Maris Desalination Ltd consortium as part of the licensing requirements for the marine disposal of desalination brines. We are grateful to the research assistants of the Marine Chemistry and the Marine Ecology laboratories at IOLR and to the crew of the R/V Etziona for their great work at sea and in the laboratory. l This article is based on a paper presented at the 12th Annual Conference of the Israel Desalination Society on 14-15 December 2011 at Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. References 1. Y Dreizin, A Tenne, and D Hoffman. 2008. Integrating large scale seawater desalination plants within Israel���s water supply system. Desalination 220:132-149. 2. D Drami, YZ Yacobi, N Stambler and N Kress. 2011. Seawater quality and microbial communities at a desalination plant marine outfall. A field study at the Israeli Mediterranean coast. Water Research 45:5449-5462. 3. A Glazer. 2011. Monitoring the coastal and marine environment at the discharge site of the Rutenberg power plant, VID desalination plant and Mekorot���s well amelioration plant. Results from 2010. Israel Electric Corp. R-ELP 13-2011. 319 pp (In Hebrew). 4. N Kress, B Galil, and E Shoham-Frider. 2011. Marine monitoring at the brine disposal site of the Via Maris desalination plant off Palmahim. Results from May and September 2010. IOLR Report H25/2011. 89 pp. (In Hebrew) 5. S Lattemann and T Hopner. 2008. Environmental impact and impact assessment of seawater desalination. Desalination 220:1-15. 6. DA Roberts, EL Johnston, and NA Knott. 2010. Impacts of desalination plant discharges on the marine environment: A critical review of published studies. Water Research 44:5117-5128. 7. DI Walker, GA Kendrick and AJ McComb. 1988. The distribution of seagrass species in shark bay, Western Australia, with notes on their ecology. Aquatic Botany 30:305-317. 8. DI Walker and AJ McComb. 1990. Salinity response of the seagrass Amphibolis antarctica (Labill.) Sonder et Aschers: an experimental validation of field results. Aquatic Botany 36:359-366. 9. Y Fern��ndez-Torquemada, JL S��nchez-Lizaso and JM Gonz��lez-Correa. 2005. Preliminary results of the monitoring of the brine discharge produced by the SWRO desalination plant of Alicante (SE Spain). Desalination 182:395-402. 10. N Raventos, E Macpherson, and A Garc��a-Rubi��s. 2006. Effect of brine discharge from a desalination plant on macrobenthic communities in the NW Mediterranean. Marine Environmental Research 62:1-14. 11. E Gacia, O Invers, M Manzanera, E Ballesteros and J Romero. 2007. Impact of the brine from a desalination plant on a shallow seagrass (Posidonia oceanica) meadow. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 72:579-590. 12. MS Koch, SA Schopmeyer, C Kyhn-Hansen, CJ Madden and JS Peters. 2007. Tropical seagrass species tolerance to hypersalinity stress. Aquatic Botany 86:14-24. 13. JL S��nchez-Lizaso, J Romero, J Ruiz, E Gacia, J L Buceta, O Invers, Y Fern��ndez Torquemada, J Mas, A Ruiz-Mateo, and M Manzanera. 2008. Salinity tolerance of the Mediterranean seagrass Posidonia oceanica: recommendations to minimize the impact of brine discharges from desalination plants. Desalination 221:602-607. 14. O Holm-Hansen, CJ Lorenzen, RW Holmes and JDH Strickland. 1965. Fluorometric determination of chlorophyll. Journal du Conseil, Permanent International pour l���Exploration de la Mer 30. 15. I Safrai. and A Zask. 2008. Reverse osmosis desalination plants -- marine environmentalist regulator point of view. Desalination 220:72-84. 16. A Glazer. 2009. Monitoring the coastal and marine environment at the discharge site of the Rutenberg power plant, VID desalination plant and Mekorot���s well amelioration plant. Results from 2008. Israel Electric Corp. R-ELP 21-2009. 151 pp (In Hebrew). 17. A Glazer. 2010. Monitoring the coastal and marine environment at the discharge site of the Rutenberg power plant, VID desalination plant and Mekorot���s well amelioration plant. Results from 2009. Israel Electric Corp. R-ELP 04-2010. 216 pp (In Hebrew). 18. Y Del Pilar Ruso, JAD la Ossa Carretero, FG Casalduero, and JLS. Lizaso. 2007. Spatial and temporal changes in infaunal communities inhabiting soft-bottoms affected by brine discharge. Marine Environmental Research 64:492-503. 19. M Hammond, N Blake, P Hallock-Muller, M Luther, D Tomasko and G Vargo. 1998. Effects of disposal of seawater desalination discharges on Near Shore Benthic Communities. Report of Southwest Florida Water Management District and University of South Florida. 20. M Argyrou. 1999. Impact of desalination plant on marine macrobenthos in the coastal waters of Dhekelia Bay, Cyprus. Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment, Cyprus. February-March 2012 | Desalination & Water Reuse | 29 |

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