Concern: Rivers transport essential nutrients and silt to the ocean. Both are important for the health of the beaches and for food supply for sea life that live near the mouth of the river.
Solution: By design, this project only collects freshwater that has already exited the river and is past mile 0 of said river. This allows more than 50% of the freshwater to escape the intake screens. Secondly, this system is portable, so the pumps can be removed during periods of low flow. It is also designed to harvest water during storms and early spring thaws when the amount of fresh water being wasted is the highest, and is designed to store it until it is needed. Finally, this system will only be permitted to operate during winter months when overall flows are higher.

Concern: Endangered species and marine mammals may be affected by anchors and mooring buoys.
Solution: This project has the ability to deploy the underwater pipeline from the reservoir connection station to the intake location in one motion from the pumping vessel without using any anchors on submerged California lands. The pipe is held in place by tension applied with the pumping vessel for three miles back to the reservoir connection station. The cables on the side of the lay flat type pipe provide the strength and weight to support the water line and the compressed air hoses. This will be less of an impact then the system’s method involving anchors and curtains more similar to a fishing boat that is close to the beach.

Concern: While pumping, the vessel would impede access to the river from the ocean.
Solution: By design, this system only works on rivers that empty directly into the ocean. Rivers with harbors or large deltas and estuaries are excluded from this project. This system always leaves buffer zones of freshwater between the intake pumps and the ocean floor along with buffers of freshwater between all vessel attachments and the shoreline. This allows for easy access to and from the river for all aquatic species. In addition, this variation of the River Recycler System is designed to be portable and only to be deployed during months without salmon runs when there is high flows and low use of the area.

Concern: Other structures in the ocean have created ecosystems around them such as oil platforms and manmade reefs.
Solution: Great care has been taken to address this even though it is still debated whether new habitat is good or bad. This project takes the approach that less impact is better in most cases. With this in mind, we removed all anchors from this project that were within three miles of the shore. This allows the waterline to be deployed, pumping to take place, and the waterline to be reeled back aboard without ever contacting any submerged California lands. By design, this project uses all minimal impact engineering, from the act of saving energy by collecting freshwater just seconds before it becomes salt water but after the freshwater has passed out of the mouth of the river. By design, the pipeline is submerged but still floating far enough above the bottom to prevent growth by contact and deep enough to be below active algae and floating attachment type organisms. Finally, the pipeline and reservoirs are only holding freshwater and compressed air. Both are benign so they pose very little impact to the environment even under complete failure scenarios.

Concern: This system could have a negative impact on other beach users and fishermen.
Solution: While every effort has been made to limit all impacts, this one is the most difficult. We have designed this system to work the best when harvesting and storing freshwater during the winter months when flows are higher. This is also the time of year when use of the beach for recreational reasons is lower. Within three miles of shore, there are no anchors or mooring buoys. With this design, we lower the impacts to the fishermen by removing all obstacles from state waters except for when pumping is actually taking place. The waterline is submerged and it runs perpendicular to the beach until it reaches deep water where at depths as deep as 5,000 feet. This should be out of reach of most fisheries. All visible floating reservoir connection stations are designed to resemble the rock islands that dot the seascape, although they are three miles off shore and are only visible from a boat. Mainly, this is a great method of collecting storm water runoff, so by nature it works best when weather is rainy. Therefore, it will not conflict with most other beach users and in fact, the only impact on other beach users would be visual. Finally, only five rivers in California were identified as excellent for recycling. None of them have harbors and most are remote and not visible for great distances.

Concern: Even though the vessel is not in the river, it is close to sensitive areas and accidents do happen.
Solution: This system of river recycling has been developed to help fix those sensitive areas. This system uses vessels that are powered by natural gas and pumps that are powered by compressed air. Not only does this help keep the carbon footprint tiny, it also means there is very little petroleum on board in case of an accidental grounding. The cables that run along side of the waterline also act as a method of pulling the vessel away from the beach in case of an accident.

Concern: Plankton are an important food source for many species of marine life. Most desalination projects kill plankton.
Solution: Yes, all ocean based desalination projects do kill plankton in varying amounts. However, this project siphons freshwater that is floating on top of the ocean before it mixes with and becomes salt water. This way, the tiny marine life forms including plankton are protected by the nature of the design.

Concern: Pumping water will still use energy.
Solution: All of the River Recycler Systems do use energy to pump water. Most of them are “extreme green” using wave-generated compressed air. Only the vessels and the backup air compressors would use natural gas as a power source. This is only a fraction of the energy required to turn salt water back into freshwater. This project harvests fresh storm water just an instant before it becomes salt water. This freshwater is stored in an off shore reservoir that also produces and stores compressed air that will be used to deliver this freshwater which will be used for environmental projects all over the southwest U.S. This may very well be the cleanest, greenest use of power ever. These mitigations are described for River Recycler Systems- California Project, and while specifically for the method utilizing pumping vessel as the collector, most are applicable to all methods of collecting freshwater.