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There are two power generation and seawater desalination plants currently operated at Barka, Oman: Barka I was commissioned in 2003, and Barka II in 2009. The cooling water from the power generation plants are mixed with reject brine (and other effluents) from desalination plants and are discharged through the same marine outfall systems. Therefore, during 2009, the brine discharge plumes changed from the previously positively buoyant from Barka I plant to a newly negatively buoyant from the combined Barka I and II plants. Consequently, instead of rising to the sea-surface, the new brine plume will now tend to sink and stay at the seabed. CORMIX simulations were carried out for two scenarios that represent the previous heated brine discharges and the new concentrated brine discharges from the Barka plants. Due to uncertainty in the input data, further simulations were carried out using salinity as a measure of the plume concentration for single port and multiport, and by varying the ambient current velocity, the effluent discharge density and flow rate. The results show that the water quality standards in the Omani coastal marine environment within the regulatory mixing zone at a 150 m radius from the discharge point have been met for both scenarios. However, the potential benthic impact due to the attachment of the new brine plume at the seabed should be monitored and investigated further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Desalinated seawater is indispensably required at all costs in the hot and arid climate of the Arabian Gulf countries of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to sustain and allow the continuing long-term socio-economic development. Building more seawater desalination plants and increasing water production rates appear to be the answer to satisfy the projected future water demands. On the other hand, the Arabian Gulf itself is a shallow semi-enclosed marginal sea and environmentally very fragile. Its water is naturally characterized by higher salinity due to an extremely high evaporation rate as a consequence of solar heating, and therefore any further loss of water by desalination plants operated along its coast would make the Arabian Gulf hypersaline. However, many scientists believe and state that the environmental impact of seawater desalination on the Arabian Gulf as a whole is negligible because natural evaporation is magnitudes higher. Using a simple mathematical model for a semi-enclosed sea of simple geometry, the role of natural evaporation and seawater desalination in the Arabian Gulf is formulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large scale seawater desalination plants are operated along the coasts and dispose of their brine waste stream by discharging into the sea. As the need for desalinated seawater is steadily increasing, more new desalination plants are planned to be constructed. If desalination plants are closely clustered together along the coastlines, the adverse environmental impacts of the brine effluent discharges from plants such as these are strongly inter-dependent. A far-field mathematical model for continuous brine discharges from two desalination plants on a uniformly sloping beach is presented. The analytical solutions are illustrated graphically to study the interaction of two brine discharge plumes. Asymptotic approximation will be made to the shoreline's brine concentration to evaluate the maximum salinity build-up in the coastal waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]