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Environmental Stewardship  Water Use Water use has always been a pivotal issue in California, and continues to gain importance nationally and internationally. Borax uses water predominantly to control dust and to refine borates - and has reduced its total water use by 16 percent since 1999. Water reduction targets and performance for our main mine and refineries are presented in the Efficiency section of this report. In 2004, we will set global reduction targets, and continue efforts to shift from fresh to recycled water use. We had no significant discharges to natural bodies of water in 2003. Our main mine and refineries are in the middle of the Mojave Desert. Effluent from these refineries - mostly water and dissolved borates - is discharged to lined ponds. After the water evaporates, we send the borates back to the refinery. We also use magnetic separation to extract residual borates from the clay in older ponds for refining, and send wastes to on-site landfills. This chart shows our water use over time. "Poor water" is defined as water from local sources with total dissolved solids greater than 1.5 grams per liter.
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