Management of Concentrate from Desalination Plants provides an overview of the alternatives for managing concentrate generated by brackish water and seawater desalination plants, as well as site-specific factors involved in the selection of the most viable alternative for a given project, and the environmental permitting requirements and studies associated with their implementation. The book focuses on widely used alternatives for disposal of concentrate, including discharge to surface water bodies; disposal to the wastewater collection system; deep well injection; land application; evaporation; and zero liquid discharge. Direct discharge through new outfall; discharge through existing wastewater treatment plant outfall; and co-disposal with the cooling water of existing coastal power plant are thoroughly described, and design guidance for the use of these concentrate disposal alternatives is presented with engineers and practitioners in the field of desalination in mind. Key advantages, disadvantages, environmental impact issues, and possible solutions are presented for each discharge alternative. Easy-to-use graphs depicting construction costs as a function of concentrate flow rate are provided for all key concentrate management alternatives.

The book presents the history of water supply to Cape Town, leading up to the worst ever drought recorded, through political turmoil impacting on drought interventions and resulting in the adoption of an integrated water strategy. Regions reliant on water supply from rainfed dams have always been vulnerable to the impact of drought. This is exacerbated by the uncertainty of future rainfall, which is never guaranteed, and reliance is placed on modelling using historic data. While weather has always been variable, climate has been generally reliable. With anthropogenic activity causing changes in climate, the validity of modelling based on history is currently not fully trusted. Unless the storage capacity is sufficient to carry through numerous seasons of poor rainfall, even with water restrictions to match demand and supply in times of depleted rainfall, the risk of reservoirs running dry remains a threat.