The Lost Rider Podcast with Herman Brune

August, 2000 - August 2025, twenty-five years reporting weekly on water issues, technology, the North American Wildlife Conservation Model, and finding answers to the questions that otherwise go unanswered. 

Nueces River Authority Executive Director John Byrum details a few of the complexities of desalinating seawater. The project is slated to be on Harbor Island at Port Aransas. Byrum explains both how the intake and discharge are managed. Water process technologies are not new to Texas. Reclamation of minerals from super-saline concentrates may have been implemented at the 1984 Byan Mound Strategic Oil Reserve drilling, and we know that super-saline concentrates were discharged into the Gulf in 1988 at the Spring Hill Strategic Oil Reserve. In both instances there was no environmental impact. Byrum assures that the desal plant on Harbor Island may likewise have a deep-water diffused discharge with no environmental impact. There is also the likelihood that minerals may be reclaimed before the discharge further diffusing the saline content.