EarthSky spoke with water expert Amy Zander about desalination - the process of removing salt from water. She said that rising demand for water will mean increased use of desalination in the United States, in the coming years.
Amy Zander: Well, we've been turning sea water into fresh water for centuries by desalination. Now the state of the science appears to be reverse osmosis, which is where we push the salty water through a membrane, and clean water comes out the other side and we have a salty concentrate solution remaining.
Zander led an assessment in 2008 by the U.S. National Research Council on desalination, she said she's concerned about desalination's possible environmental effects.
Amy Zander: We have worries about what to do with that concent
