Even though this desal plant is the largest inland desalination plant in the U.S I was surprised to see how small the facility was. I mean this place is supposedly pumping out 27.5 million gallons of water, and the Osmotic stations themselves seemed no bigger than a house. I was also surprised to see the history behind the creation of the kay bailey Hutchinson plant, and the reason to re name it.
I’m not going to lie when I first got to el Paso I honestly thought to myself that el Paso and Juarez where massive cities in the middle of a dry arid desert. Juarez alone has a population at about 1,398,400 people (est. in 2014)., and according to the last census in the U.S for El Paso in 2014 it estimated here to have a population of 679,000. That’s a population of well over 2 million people in the desert. And in the same year I had the opportunity to see the Rio Grande and unfortunately it was a time where the river was completely dry. Here I am someone for Florida confused, wondering to myself where is this massive Rio Grande? How are these people here, how are they able to be here? It is amazing the massive demand el Paso has for water and how they can they still meet that demand.
What also surprised me a great deal was how el Paso water, and the plant are constantly thinking forward into the suture to still can meet water demand. For example, they are already thinking expanding the plant to be able to produce more water by adding other osmotic station, they also are working in a partnership with a separate company that want to buy Kay bailey’s waste. With that waste, they can make products such as talcum powder, magnesium, salt, and other products.
Here is some information if ya’ll are interested on knowing a little bit about EWM the comapny that buys Kay Bailey’s waste
http://www.envirowaterminerals.com/
http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/local_news/article_0945bed6-2dc4-11e7-8fbf-8f58c02c03d1.html
http://www.epwu.org/public_information/news_releases/nr_150608-01.html
These are further areas of opportunity that would be great to have some further information about for further career opportunities.
