Research and Development Office

Discovering Desal

Since 2016, over 2,600 third graders have visited BGNDRF during Discovering Desal and participated in learning stations related to the importance of fresh water, how water becomes salty, using reverse osmosis and electrical charges to remove dissolved salts from water, how renewable energy powers desalination technologies, and more.

The event reaches all third graders in the Alamogordo Public School system, as well as private schools, homeschool groups, and students from the New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

Discovering Desal also includes an on-the-road event for summer school students to small towns near the eastern border of New Mexico.

Reclamation's video "Making Desal Cool: How Reclamation's Brackish Groundwater National Desalination Research Facility Teaches 3rd Graders the Science of Turning Salty Water into Freshwater" was selected for the 2019 Water Environment Federation's Annual Technical Exhibition Conference.

The Water Environment Foundation (WEF) is a not-for-profit association that provides technical education and training for thousands of water quality professionals.

The video production was a collaborative effort across Reclamation's Research and Development Office, the Washington D.C. Public Affairs Office, and BGNDRF staff and volunteers.

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