经济学人340:加州的海水淡化

 　　IF CALIFORNIA were not already so famous for Silicon¹ Valley and Hollywood, it might be renowned² for the cluster of water-technology firms in its San Diego County. The reverse-osmosis (RO) spiral module³, the trick that underpins⁴ turning sea- and waste-water into potable stuff, was patented in San Diego in 1964. Today dozens of firms in the area supply many of the world’s roughly 13,000 RO plants in places from the Persian Gulf⁵ and Israel to Australia, China, Singapore and Spain.

　　如果加利福利亚的出名不是因为硅谷和好莱坞，那么圣地亚哥大量的水处理公司也许会让它声名在外。反渗透膜元件1964在圣地亚哥被申请专利，该设备是将海水和废水转化为可饮用水的基础。当今全球约有13000家反渗透厂，它们分布在从波斯湾、以色列到澳大利亚、中国、新加坡和西班牙的地方。而其中的大多数厂商从圣地亚哥的水处理公司引进技术和设备。

　　Southern California itself, however, has not so far been a big user of its own technology. This is surprising, given that the whole American south-west confronts a water problem. But there is at least now a growing consensus⁶ that the existing infrastructure⁷, consisting of vast aqueducts that carry water from the Sacramento Delta⁸ in the north and the Colorado River in the east, will not suffice as the climate gets warmer and the population increases. In places such as San Diego, which has measly and brackish⁹ groundwater and currently imports 90% of its water, the answer must be greater conservation, as much reuse as possible, with most of the rest coming from the sea.

　　然而到目前为止，南加州自身对水处理技术的运用并不广泛。这让人感觉到很惊讶，因为整个美国西南地区面临水资源匮乏问题。至少大家都逐渐认识到：随着气候变暖和人口增加，现存的基础设施（包括大量从北部的沙加緬度三角洲、东部的科罗拉多河铺设到西南地区的输水管道）将难以满足用水需求。圣地亚哥拥有的地下水储量既少，盐份又高，如今其90%的用水需从外地引入。在像圣地亚哥这样的地方，其对策是尽可能的节约用水、循环利用，而剩余不足的部份则大多从海洋中获取。

　　The first part, conservation, is hardly controversial any more. San Diego today uses less water with a larger population than it did in 1989, the year water consumption peaked. The second part, water recycling, has been a harder sell, because of what the industry calls the yuck factor. It doesn’t help that Americans still use the term “toilet-to-tap” for recycling, even though properly treated sewage is nowadays completely clean. Singapore made its programme acceptable in part by rebranding it as NEWater. But even the Singaporeans cannot recycle all their waste-water.

　　首先，节约用水已被广泛认同。圣地亚哥如今人口增加了，耗水量却比1989年（耗水量最高的一年）少。其次，水循环利用很难被广泛接受，其原因在于业内所称的“恶心之物”。美国人民称水循环为“马桶-水龙头”，即使被恰当处理的污水十分干净，其也难去除人们的恶心之感。新加坡使其在理论上被接受，部分原因在于它把处理过的污水称为新生水。但是，即使是新加坡人也不能循环利用所有的废水。

　　This is where desalination¹⁰ comes in. A firm appropriately called Poseidon Resources is now close to building the biggest desalination plant in America behind a power station by the beach in Carlsbad. The power plant sucks in 304m gallons of seawater a day for cooling in any case, so Poseidon plans to divert 104m gallons a day through its osmotic membranes¹¹.

　　海水淡化技术就因此出现了。恰如其名，Poseidon Resources公司将在美国修建最大的海水淡化厂，其厂址位于卡尔斯巴德的海滩附近的发电站后面。发电站每日总会吸取30400万加仑海水用于冷却，因此Poseidon计划每日用渗透膜淡化10400万加仑海水。

　　Fondling a pipe of membranes (they are rolled like toilet paper but the size of a cannon), Poseidon’s Peter MacLaggan explains the scale: if water molecules¹² were blown up to the size of tennis balls, salt molecules would be softballs (roughly 50% bigger in diameter), viruses would be trucks, and bacteria would be the size of power plants. From the 104m daily gallons, 50m gallons of pure H2O will come out at one end and brine at the other, to be fed back into the power station’s discharge, and then into the ocean.

　　渗透膜如同卫生纸一样卷起来的，但却有大炮那么大。Poseidon的Peter MacLaggan一边摸着渗透膜一边解释道：如果水分子胀大到乒乓球大小，盐分子有垒球大（在直径上大约长50%），病毒有卡车那么大，细菌有发电厂那么大。在每天处理的10400万加仑海水中，有5000万加仑的纯水从渗透膜一端流出，然后在其另一端变成浓盐水，最终由发电厂的排放系统流回海里。

　　Lots of people like the idea. Once fully¹³ running in 2015 the plant could produce 10% of the region’s water. And there are plans for more desalination plants. Inland Californians, Arizonans, Nevadans and others would need to take much less water from the endangered Colorado River.

　　很多人赞同这种想法。到2015年，一旦Poseidon全部投入运行，其可以提供该地区用水的10%。而且有许多厂准备加入海水淡化处理队伍。加利福利亚内陆、亚利桑那州、内华达州和其它地方从日渐干涸的科罗拉多河中抽取的水将越来越少。

　　But a few people hate it a lot. Environmentalists are suing Poseidon every step of the way. Joe Geever of the Surfrider Foundation says desalination uses too much energy and that Poseidon’s plant would kill too much marine¹⁴ life, including fish such as the goby and the garibaldi, which unfortunately happens to be California’s state marine fish. He understands that there is a role for desalination, he says, but would rather not have it right there, right now, and on this scale.

　　但是也有一些人极不赞同。环境保护者正在起诉Poseidon海水淡化方式的每一步骤。冲浪协会的Joe Geever说：“海水淡化耗费太多的能源，而且Poseidon会伤害许多海洋动物诸如虾虎鱼、海金鱼之类的鱼类，而后者恰好是加州的海洋鱼。”他说，他知道海水淡化的重要性，但是相对于其来带的利弊，他宁愿加州此刻没有这么大规模的海水淡化厂。

1 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

2 renowned   

adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的

参考例句：

• He is one of the world's renowned writers.他是世界上知名的作家之一。
• She is renowned for her advocacy of human rights.她以提倡人权而闻名。

3 module   

n.组件，模块，模件；(航天器的)舱

参考例句：

• The centre module displays traffic guidance information.中央模块显示交通引导信息。
• Two large tanks in the service module held liquid oxygen.服务舱的两个大气瓶中装有液态氧。

4 underpins   

n.基础材料( underpin的名词复数 )；基础结构；（学说、理论等的）基础；（人的）腿v.用砖石结构等从下面支撑（墙等）( underpin的第三人称单数 )；加固（墙等）的基础；为（论据、主张等）打下基础；加强

参考例句：

• A powerful sense of mission underpins everything he does. 一种强烈的使命感支撑他所做的一切。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• His presence at the crime underpins the case against him. 案子发生时他在场对他更不利。 来自辞典例句

5 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

6 consensus   

n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识

参考例句：

• Can we reach a consensus on this issue?我们能在这个问题上取得一致意见吗？
• What is the consensus of opinion at the afternoon meeting?下午会议上一致的意见是什么？

7 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

8 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。

9 brackish   

adj.混有盐的；咸的

参考例句：

• Brackish waters generally support only a small range of faunas.咸水水域通常只能存活为数不多的几种动物。
• The factory has several shallow pools of brackish water.工厂有几个浅的咸水池。

10 desalination   

n.脱盐(作用)

参考例句：

• Crops can be grown on this land after desalination. 这片土地经过脱盐就可以种植庄稼了。
• One source is by desalination-taking the salt out of salt water to make it drinkable. 淡水的来源之一是使水淡化--把含盐的水中的盐份去掉，使之能够饮用。

11 membranes   

n.（动物或植物体内的）薄膜( membrane的名词复数 )；隔膜；（可起防水、防风等作用的）膜状物

参考例句：

• The waste material is placed in cells with permeable membranes. 废液置于有渗透膜的槽中。 来自辞典例句
• The sarcoplasmic reticulum is a system of intracellular membranes. 肌浆网属于细胞内膜系统。 来自辞典例句

12 molecules   

分子( molecule的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The structure of molecules can be seen under an electron microscope. 分子的结构可在电子显微镜下观察到。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules. 在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

13 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

14 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。