Water Science - It seemed like a good idea at the time

However, in many cases desalination—even with expected efficiency improvements—is vastly more expensive than traditional surface water supply infrastructure, which in turn is often much more expensive than efficiency measures, such as irrigation scheduling in agriculture. These efficiency measures can result in a net increase in water availability, and even net cost savings when operating savings of the measures outweigh annualized capital costs

Archer Daniels Midland - Fortune 500: #122