Fifteen billion acre-feet of ground water? That is about a 25-year supply for the world at current pumping rates!
That's how much brackish ground water lies beneath New Mexico, according to Sean Olson [thanks to John Fleck for alterting me] in the 29 December 2008 Albuquerque Journal (you will have to view an ad to read his article). I know a lot of brackish ground water underlies New Mexico but I am a little skeptical of that figure - it seems awfully high.
But the exact number is not relevant to Olson's article, which basically says that desalting New Mexico's huge supply of brackish ground water will likely cost a lot of money because of the energy required.
Mike Hightower of Sandia National Laboratories, a good guy (even though he attended New Mexico State University) who knows as much about the energy-water nexus as anyone I've ever met. says that it will cost about $3-$5 per 1000 gallons to treat brackish water to drinking-water standards. It costs about $1-$2 per 1000 gallons to treat 'normal' fresh water to the same standards.
Then there's the problem of waste disposal, about which I posted in August 2008.
For more information on the topic: here is Bruce Thomson's Op-Ed about the New Mexico brackish water issue, and another one of my posts on this subject from November 2008.
Never a dull moment in the Land of Entrapment!
"We know accurately only when we know little; with knowledge doubt increases. " -- Goethe
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