Eric MacLaurin comments

The "heavy toll" of desalination is that it uses energy?

Why do I keep hearing such horrifically inane arguments against desalination? Don't people know that pumps use electricity.

Fresh water from wells, reservoirs or canals all have environmental impacts.

The actual price of any given option is based on how that cost compares to other options. It is NOT ever a problem that work requires effort. That's called a scientific fact. The cost of desalination can only be compared with the cost of getting water other ways. An existing method is not free of cost simply because it's already in use.

Pet peeve? People who think salt in the ocean is pollution. All you ever have to do to eliminate brine as a pollutant is to dilute it with enough seawater while it's released to keep ambient saline level in a safe range. That means for the cost of a pump you have no brine problem.