Orange County Water Resilience: A Comparative Study of Desalination and Wastewater Management

Abstract

The persistent effects of population growth, climate change, and diminishing freshwater sources have made water scarcity a critical issue worldwide. In California, sustained droughts have overtaxed the water sources crucial to its economic, social, and agricultural infrastructure. This, in turn, has increased the need for sustainable water resources, and the ongoing depletion of vital groundwater resources has left the state over-reliant on interstate imports and unsustainable in the long term. However, two methods have emerged that could potentially replenish California’s depleting water sources: reverse osmosis (RO) desalination and wastewater management. Exploring the history, development, and efficiency of these methods, this paper aims to gauge and compare the effectiveness of these two water extraction systems. By evaluating each method's energy efficiency, cost, sustainability, and political feasibility, we aim to determine the best option for both Orange County specifically and California generally moving forward. While RO desalination can provide high volumes of freshwater, it has drawbacks, including extreme energy costs and the potential destruction of marine environments. Wastewater management, on the other hand, provides more energy-efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally sustainable freshwater. However, it faces significant backlash from public skepticism around initiatives like the “toilet to tap” campaign. This paper concludes that a hybrid approach featuring both methods contingent on environmental and infrastructural conditions would best address California’s water concerns, but it also argues for the clear prioritization of wastewater management over RO desalination in the most feasible cases.