This study evaluated intermediate chemical demineralization (ICD) as a technique for overcoming mineral salt solubility limits that constrain the water recovery of reverse osmosis (RU) desalting. An empirical approach was developed to determine theoretical cation removal set points for ICD based on predetermined process design and operation guidelines to facilitate increasing the overall water recovery of Colorado River water desalting from 85% (i.e., in the primary RU unit) to 95% via a secondary RU (SRO) unit. Additionally, the study evaluated whether microfiltration (MF) or dual-media filtration (DMF) could serve as the filtration step prior to the secondary reverse osmosis (SRO) unit. The model suggested ranges for ICD influent total-carbonate-to-calcium ratios and ICD effluent pH to simultaneously mitigate barium sulfate, calcium sulfate, and silica scaling. MF was preferred over DMF as the filtration step prior to SRO based on significantly lower filter effluent turbidity and silt density indices. The overall PRO-ICD-SRO system operated for over 550 h at 95% total RU water recovery without evidence of scaling of the terminal RU elements, validating the cation removal set points developed through the ICD model and demonstrating the utility of ICD. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.