A brine pond is typically designed to facilitate the harvest of salts or other crystaline minerals that are left when the water evaporates, while a conventional or standard pond is simply designed to hold water and collect any residue that must be kept out of local waterways, groundwater or surrounding soil. Standard ponds can be used in more diverse locales and climates, because the evaporation rate is not as critical. Because high salinity, whether naturally occurring or artificially created, is highly corrosive, brine ponds must be specially designed and constructed with materials that are resistant to such corrosion, and greater care must be taken to create a stable foundation because of the mechanical equipment used to harvest the salts. Aside from the design and specification differences, there are unique functional characteristics of brine ponds. While professional design expertise is valuable for any evaporation pond, it is critical for brine ponds. They operate best in arid, dry climates with an abundance of sun and wind.
Because most of the earth’s surface is seawater, there is an increasing global effort to build desalination plants in countries that have a shortage of potable water for domestic needs. When the desalination facilities are located inland, it is often impractical or impossible to return the brine to the sea for disposal, so evaporation ponds are commonly used. They must be monitored closely, because spillage or overflow caused by rainfall can damage underlying soil and groundwater for years or even decades. Some industrial brines are particularly troublesome if they contain secondary contaminants that might pollute soil and underground aquifers. Additional wear and tear on pond lining material is to be expected due to harvesting efforts, and greater care must be taken to prevent damage to the lining material. Commercial brine ponds are typically built with the express purpose of harvesting salts and other minerals. Subsurface preparation is also critical, and it may differ substantially from a standard “holding pond.” Brine ponds may have a layer of concrete on top of the pond liner to facilitate the use of mechanical harvesting equipment and underground leak detection equipment is not uncommon.
