Yuma Desalinization Plant, Arizona

A desalinization plant, one of the largest in the world, built to take salt out of the Colorado River before it trickles into Mexico. The plant, constructed by the Federal government for $250 million, was promised to Mexico because the river's water was so salty by the time it crossed the border, that Mexican farmers found it dangerous to use on their crops. This was due to salt contamination from throughout the lower Colorado region desert agriculture, but primarily from the intensive agriculture in the arid Welton Mohawk district, east of Yuma, which flushed the salt--the residue from evaporation--out of its fields, directly into the Colorado. The plant, conceived of in the late 1970s and finished in 1992, has lain largely dormant, however, due to a number of factors, including flood damage to some of the region's drainage ditches, wet weather naturally diluting the salty water, and the $25 to $30 million annual expense of operating the plant. Due to increased demand for water from the Colorado RIver at a time when the Southwest is gripped by severe drought, there is now renewed interest in the plant as an additional source of water.