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

Sea water isn’t just a little salty, it’s 3.5% salt by weight.

For every gallon of water you purify you have to remove a quarter pound of salt.

The average household uses 300 gallons a *day*, so we’re looking at *seventy five pounds a day* of salt per household.

Dirt or clay or activated charcoal or any other kind of substrate filtration can pick some salt out of water, but the volume of salt you’re dumping here is immense.

Soon you have more salt than soil, and the whole thing is a brackish bog.