Just some salt and water related questions:
Toady, will the game ever automatically remove the "salt" flag from empty dry spaces and provide us with means to scrub away "salt" as a contaminate in spaces filled with dry stuff so using cisterns becomes easier and more logical? Also, will screw pumps ever be changed so they don't purify water and have that function replaced by a desalination tool of some sort?
Edit: To clarify, currently if you dig out a cistern and fill it with fresh water, and then contaminate that water with salt water, it makes the whole cistern full of salt water. But as an added "bonus" it permanently makes any fresh water later entering the space of the emptied cistern into salt water. This is irregardless of whether or not you have dug out the cistern and replaced every single block with new blocks, the "space" is what's contaminated, not the materials or items in the space. So, my question is really why haven't you just made a check that removes "salt" from spaces that have nothing in them (no floor, no blocks, no rocks or trees or items or water) except air, and then just make the salt that still exists a contaminate that can only be removed from dry squares (so a cistern would just be emptied of salt water and scrubbed down good as new).