Yuma Area Office
Facilities
Yuma Desalting Plant Operations
Fresh water may be our most valuable resource. While the Yuma Desalting Plant is the world's largest reverse osmosis desalting plant, it is not the only one. In the U.S., communities in many states have built desalting plants to help supply water. In some parts of the world, desalination processes are used to change agricultural drainage water and ocean water into fresh water for human and domestic animal use. Saudi Arabia and Israel also depend on desalting to treat much of their drinking water. Army troops in the field use mobile reverse osmosis units to provide their drinking water; and the Navy Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, uses reverse osmosis to supply water needs for its support staff.
The Bureau of Reclamation's Yuma Desalting Plant was constructed to meet salinity requirements set forth inMinute No. 242. It desalts and salvages drainage water that otherwise would be too saline to deliver to Mexico, thus saving the U.S. up to 97 million cubic meters (78,000 acre-feet) of Colorado River water per year.
The links below detail the water treatment process at the Yuma Desalting Plant.
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