Desalination Facilities During the initial study it seemed that having a seawater desalination plant at San Diego and another at Brownsville would be the way to go, thus shipping the desalted water via the BorderTransportationSystem pipeline to the users along the route.  Water though can pick up all sorts of bacteria, and pipes can leach, thus any fresh water produced would need to be filtered and purified at the individual sources.   Additionally, the two port cities would be among the biggest users of the fresh water, and therefore not much would be available for those areas along the route.  Thus, it is felt that it would be more efficient to have a desalination plant at San Diego for San Diego, which is already being built, and a desalination plant at Brownsville for Brownsville, then pipe seawater from both ports to desalination plants along the BorderTransportationSystem route.  The salty sea water contains several minerals of which are usually too expensive to recover due to the cost of fossil or nuclear fuel needed to power the desalination plants, but using solar and wind energy that is generated along the route and thus; along with reverse osmosis may make the process affordable. These plants can be small and used just to supply clean potable water for a rest area, or large and supply fresh water to entire towns or farms.  This is not new technology, it is the getting the technology to those that need it at an affordable price, and the BorderTransportationSystem is designed to do this. Here are the proposals and the data that has been researched or generated. Index of ... Can we farm Minerals from Sea Water Desalination Plants at Rest Areas Each plant sized for its intended use Funding can be from How will heat effect the materials Plant Sizing, 50,000,000 gal per day San Diego's design Water cost Water purifying needed Where needed