How 'bout a cool, refreshing cup of seawater?Most of the United States has, or can gain access to, ample supplies of fresh water for drinking purposes. Of course, as the population continues to grow shortages of water for drinking will become more acute, if only in certain locations.
In California, the towns of Santa Barbara and Avalon have begun using desalinization methods to remove the salt from seawater and make it suitable for drinking. A promising method to desalinate seawater is the "reverse osmosis" method. Right now, the high cost of desalinization has kept it from being used more often, as it can cost over $1,000 per acre-foot to desalinate seawater as compared to about $200 per acre-foot for water from normal supply sources. Desalinization technology is improving and costs are falling, though, and Tampa Bay, FL is currently desalinizing water at a cost of only $650 per acre foot. As both the demand for fresh water and technology increase you can expect to see more desalinization occuring, especially in areas such as California and the Middle East.
By the way, just what does 'saline water' mean? If water contains more than 1,000 milligrams of dissolved solids, such as salt, per liter then the water is called saline. More simply, if 1/1,000 th (or more) of the weight of a liter of water (also referred to as "parts per thousand") is from salt, then the water is saline.
Some of this information came from the Water Education Foundation and from the Newsletter of Environmental Geology at Miami University, OH.