why can’t we use dirt to process salt water

Question

If we pumped salt water onto land, would it filter the salt out while adding to our underground water source?

In: 21

Answer 1

Because that dirt would become toxic to life from the filtered out salt/brine if it worked. A tiny bit of salt isn’t that bad but when you start doing it on scales needed to support human consumption it is going to create a lot of brine that needs to be disposed of properly to not affect the local ecosystems.