Why don’t we just switch to desalination of sea water?

A number of sea water desalination projects are underway in California.  However, there are several problems with desalination.  First, facilities are expensive to build, and when water rates increase to pay for them, users tend to use less water, which in turn reduces revenues.  Second, the desalination process uses a lot of energy, which is costly and hard on the environment.  Third, the desalination process produces a lot of salt, which cannot be released back into the immediate environment without altering the ocean ecosystem.  Eventually, technology will develop solutions to all these problems, and the cost of desal will become competitive with the cost of water delivered by other means.  In the meantime, by far the least expensive way to get more water is through conservation.  Water recycling is also less expensive than desal.