6月12日CNN聽力：美國加州連續幹旱 須要制作海水淡化工場
We will run out of water.We absolutely will.
California is in the midst of the worst drought onrecord, and yet the need for freshwater is onlyincreasing.
In order to meet that demand, cities across the stateare turning to rather controversial and expensivetechnology called desalination,where they turn oceanwater into freshwater.
Fifteen desalination plants are currently in the works in California, the largest being the 1 billionCarlsbad plant slated to open this November.
When operational, it will produce 50 million gallons of fresh water a day through a processcalled reverse osmosis, which filters out 99.9 percent of the salt.
We certainly didn't plan on completing the plant during record drought conditions here inCalifornia,
but it does highlight the importance of what we're doing,which is to provide a new supply ofwater, essentially drought-proof water.
But this drought-proof water source comes at a price.
The desalination process is incredibly energy-intensive and the water produced from the plantwill cost about twice as much as traditional tap water.
A gap the San Diego Water Authority expects will close overtime.
Up the coast, Santa Barbara is planning to invest 40 million to reactivate a plant that was builtin the '90s, during the state's last severe drought.
The plant ran for just four months before heavy rains ended the dry spell.
You got floppy disk here.Keyboards with actual keys.
Over 30 million investment, only use for four months and then sits here for 23 years.
Desalination is expensive.
But I-if you start to look at the economic impacts of a community running out of water,it willdwarf any costs of bringing desalination to this community.
The city says it will take about 12 to 14 months to update the now very outdated facility.
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