End of the Year Issue
By Marly Fisher
American history is defined by movement. The land of the New World was all but promised to its conquerors; Manifest Destiny pandered in whispers to those who settled ever-westward. However, the frontier was more than a paradigm of character — it was the source of American democracy. The border was endless. At the ends of the United States, the frontier acted as a “gate of escape from the bondage of the past.” We, the people, have bent lands and people to our will all in service of growth.
Modern-day America has continued this trend of expansion, with one marked difference: instead of conquering new land, they have begun to dominate the water supply. A New York Times investigation has revealed that in much of the United States, “communities and farms are pumping out groundwater at alarming rates. Aquifers are shrinking nationwide, threatening supplies of drinking water and the country’s status as a food superpower.” This issue is especially pronounced in Arizona, where state officials say there is not enough groundwater for housing construction that has already been approved. In search of a way to expand its water supply, Arizona stumbled upon IDE Technologies, an Israeli desalination company. Exactly what it sounds like, desalination is the process of removing salt and other minerals from ocean water. IDE proposed locating the desalination plant at Puerto Peñasco, in Sonora, Mexico. Picture an infinite and uninvited reverse Colorado — a 200 mile pipeline flowing uphill to money.
Desalination is becoming common practice in the Middle East as well; according to Études de L’IFRI,
"The majority of Gulf countries now largely depend on desalinated water for their inhabitants’ consumption: in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), 42% of drinking water comes from desalination plants producing more than 7 million cubic meters (m3) per day, in Kuwait it is 90%, in Oman 86%, and in Saudi Arabia 70%. In 2022, there were more than 21,000 seawater desalination plants in operation worldwide, almost twice as many as a decade ago."
At first glance, desalination is the ideal solution to a rapidly developing world. There is certainly no shortage of ocean water — “desalination is simply taking a resource we have an abundance of and turning it into the thing that’s scarce.”; but its environmental impacts are devastating. For every liter of potable water produced, about 1.5 liters of liquid polluted with chlorine and copper are created. When pumped back into the ocean, the toxic brine depletes oxygen and impacts organisms along the food chain. Furthermore, desalination plants in the Middle East have largely benefited from an energy mix based on fossil fuels that permit cheap desalination. When presenting the idea for a tank in Mexico, the IDE promised there would be no negative impact from the ocean brine. They were lying.
Arizona’s appeal is the bounty of its desert. Barren wildscape is contrasted with colors of opulence, of hordes of golf courses, pools and suburbia. Before even considering desalination, it is important to maximize alternatives like water conservation, stormwater capture, and recycled water expansion. If the world is trending towards the widespread usage of desalination, two solutions will be required: powering these plants with low-carbon energy sources, such as solar power, wind power,improving water sector governance and encouraging sustainable water use policies in the industrial, agricultural and the residential sectors.
Perhaps, nonetheless, we should first attempt to understand why so many countries have found themselves in this dire position in the first place. Why has excessive growth underpinned our economies? Why have we exploited fossil fuel resources? Is this kind of growth inevitable? Is it necessary? The same historical theory that had justified American expansion domestically would guide American imperialism abroad. Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico… even the backing of Ukrainian forces now is guided by the same principle of movement, of ownership. Arizona’s identity of artifice may not be going anywhere, nor will the Middle East’s future of ocean water usage — not if we do not stop to examine the United States’ history of domination.