The Salton Sea is a shallow, landlocked, highly saline body of water in Riverside and Imperial counties at the southern end of the U.S. state of California. It lies on the

San Andreas Fault The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly through California. It forms the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is right-lateral strike-slip (horizonta ...

within the

Salton Trough The Salton Trough is an active tectonic pull-apart basin, or graben. It lies within the Imperial, Riverside, and San Diego counties of southeastern California, United States and extends south of the Mexico–United States border into the stat ...

that stretches to the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja C ...

in Mexico. Over millions of years, the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

has flowed into the

Imperial Valley , photo = Salton Sea from Space.jpg , photo_caption = The Imperial Valley below the Salton Sea. The US-Mexican border runs diagonally across the lower left of the image. , map_image = Newriverwatershed-1-.jpg , map_caption = Map of Imperial ...

and deposited

alluvium Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. ...

(soil), creating fertile farmland, building up the terrain, and constantly moving its main course and river delta. For thousands of years, the river has alternately flowed into the valley, or diverted around it, creating either a

saline lake A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salt (chemistry), salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of ...

called Lake Cahuilla, or a dry

desert basin A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one ...

, respectively. When the Colorado River flows into the valley, the lake level depends on river flows and the balance between inflow and evaporative loss. When the river diverts around the valley, the lake dries completely, as it did around 1580. Hundreds of archaeological sites have been found in this region, indicating possibly long-term Native American villages and temporary camps. The current lake was formed from an inflow of water from the Colorado River in 1905. Beginning in 1900, an irrigation canal was dug from the Colorado River to the old Alamo River channel to provide water to the Imperial Valley for farming. The headgates and canals sustained a buildup of silt, so a series of cuts were made in the bank of the Colorado River to further increase the water flow. Water from spring floods broke through a canal head-gate diverting a portion of the river flow into the Salton Basin for two years before repairs were completed. The water in the formerly dry lake bed created the modern lake, which is about . The lake would have dried up, but farmers used generous amounts of Colorado River water and let the excess flow into the lake. In the 1950s and into the '60s, the area became a

resort destination A resort town, often called a resort city or resort destination, is an urban area where tourism or vacationing is the primary component of the local culture and economy. A typical resort town has one or more actual resorts in the surrounding ...

, and communities grew with hotels and vacation homes. Birdwatching was also popular as the wetlands were a major resting stop on the Pacific Flyway. In the 1970s, scientists issued warnings that the lake would continue to shrink and become more inhospitable to wildlife. In the 1980s, contamination from farm runoff promoted the outbreak and spread of diseases. Massive die-offs of the avian populations have occurred, especially after the loss of several species of fish on which they depend. Salinity rose so high that large fish kills occurred, often blighting the beaches of the sea with their carcasses. Tourism was drastically reduced. After 1999, the lake began to shrink as local agriculture used the water more efficiently so less runoff flowed into the lake. As the lake bed became exposed, the winds sent clouds of toxic dust into nearby communities. Smaller amounts of dust reached into the Los Angeles area and people there could sometimes smell an odor coming from the lake. The state is mainly responsible for fixing the problems, and California lawmakers pledged to fund air-quality management projects in conjunction with the signing of the 2003 agreement to send more water to coastal cities. Local, state, and federal bodies all had found minimal success dealing with the dust, dying wildlife, and other problems for which warnings had been issued decades before. At the beginning of 2018 local agencies declared an emergency and, along with the state, funded and developed the Salton Sea Management Program. In 2020, ''Palm Springs Life'' magazine summarized the ecological situation as "Salton Sea derives its fame as the biggest environmental disaster in California history". After a slow start and some small projects, construction started on a $206.5 million project in early 2021 on the delta of the New River, creating ponds and wetlands on the southern shore of the lake.

History

Before the modern era

The

would extend as far north as the city of Indio, were it not for the delta created by the Colorado River. Over three million years, through all of the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

, the river's delta expanded until it cut off the northern part of the gulf. Since then, the Colorado River has alternated between emptying into the basin, creating a freshwater lake, and emptying into the gulf, leaving the lake to dry and turn to desert. Wave-cut shorelines at various elevations record a repeated cycle of filling and drying over hundreds of thousands of years. The most recent freshwater lake was Lake Cahuilla, also known as the Blake Sea after American professor and geologist William Phipps Blake. It covered over , six times the area of the Salton Sea. Archaeological sites and radiocarbon dates indicate that the lake was filled three or four times over the last 1300 years. When full, the lake would attract Native Americans to its shores. Hundreds of sites have been found, some possibly long-term villages and other temporary camps. The occupants ate at least four species of fish (two of which were

razorback sucker The razorback sucker (''Xyrauchen texanus'') is a suckerfish found in rivers and lakes in the southwestern United States. It can grow to in length and is recognisable by the keel between its head and dorsal fin. It used to inhabit much of the C ...

and

bonytail chub The bonytail chub or bonytail (''Gila elegans'') is a cyprinid freshwater fish native to the Colorado River basin of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming in the southwestern United States; it has been extirpated fro ...

), birds (particularly the coot),

black-tailed jackrabbit The black-tailed jackrabbit (''Lepus californicus''), also known as the American desert hare, is a common hare of the western United States and Mexico, where it is found at elevations from sea level up to . Reaching a length around , and a ...

, black-tailed

cottontail rabbit Cottontail rabbits are the leporid species in the genus ''Sylvilagus'', found in the Americas. Most ''Sylvilagus'' species have stub tails with white undersides that show when they retreat, giving them their characteristic name. However, this ...

, and sometimes deer and bighorn sheep. Among the plants they used were

bulrush Bulrush is a vernacular name for several large wetland grass-like plants *Sedge family (Cyperaceae): **''Cyperus'' **'' Scirpus'' **''Blysmus'' **''Bolboschoenus'' **'' Scirpoides'' **'' Isolepis'' **'' Schoenoplectus'' **'' Trichophorum'' * T ...

cattail ''Typha'' is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English as bulrush or reedmace, in American English as reed, cattail, or punks, in ...

mesquite Mesquite is a common name for several plants in the genus '' Prosopis'', which contains over 40 species of small leguminous trees. They are native to dry areas in the Americas. They have extremely long roots to seek water from very far under gr ...

, and

saltbush Saltbush is a vernacular plant name that most often refers to '' Atriplex'', a genus of about 250 plants distributed worldwide from subtropical to subarctic regions. ''Atriplex'' species are native to Australia, North and South America, and Eurasia. ...

. The

Cahuilla The Cahuilla , also known as ʔívil̃uqaletem or Ivilyuqaletem, are a Native American people of the various tribes of the Cahuilla Nation, living in the inland areas of southern California.Colorado Desert" after the Colorado River. In a railroad survey completed in 1855, it was called "the Valley of the Ancient Lake". On several old maps from the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

, it has been found labeled "Cahuilla Valley" (after the local Native American tribe) and "Cabazon Valley" (after a local Native American chief – Chief Cabazon). " Salt Creek" first appeared on a map in 1867 and "Salton Station" is on a railroad map from 1900, although this place had been there as a rail stop since the late 1870s. Until the advent of the modern sea, the Salton Sink was the site of a major salt-mining operation.

Modern formation

Colorado River below Imperial Canal intake

In 1900, under governor James Budd, the

California Development Company The California Development Company was formed in 1896 as a replacement for the defunct Colorado River Irrigation Company, which had been started a few years earlier for the purpose of planning an irrigation system for the lower Colorado Desert in ...

began construction of irrigation canals to divert water from the Colorado River into the Salton Sink, a dry lake bed. After construction of these irrigation canals, the Salton Sink became fertile for a time, allowing farmers to plant crops. Within two years, the Alamo Canal became filled with silt from the Colorado River. Engineers tried to alleviate the blockages to no avail. In 1905, heavy rainfall and snowmelt caused the Colorado River to swell, overrunning the third intake cut into the bank of the river and sending the flood into the Alamo Canal. The resulting flood poured down the canal, and down two former dry arroyos, the New River in the west, and the Alamo River in the east, each about long.Detailed maps, and a film of the breach (and subsequent redamming) are in Over about two years, these two newly created rivers carried the entire volume of the Colorado River into the Salton Sink. The Southern Pacific Railroad tried to stop the flooding by dumping earth into the canal's headgates area, but the effort was not fast enough, and the river eroded deeper and deeper into the dry desert sand of the Imperial Valley. A large waterfall formed as a result and began cutting rapidly upstream along the path of the Alamo Canal that now was occupied by the Colorado. This waterfall was initially high, but grew to high before the flow through the breach was stopped. Originally, the waterfall was feared to recede upstream to the true main path of the Colorado, becoming up to high, when it would be practically impossible to stop the flow. As the basin filled, the town of Salton, a Southern Pacific Railroad siding, the New Liverpool Salt Company facility and miniature railroad, and Torres-Martinez Native American land were submerged. The tribe's reservation now straddles the northern end of the lake. The sudden influx of water and the lack of any drainage from the basin resulted in the formation of the Salton Sea.

Agriculture, tourism and wildlife proliferate

In the 1920s, agriculture had boomed in the valley as the

Imperial Irrigation District The Imperial Irrigation District (IID) is an irrigation district that serves the Imperial Valley in Southern California. Established under the State Water Code, the IID supplies roughly of Imperial Valley farmland with raw Colorado River water ...

delivered large quantities of Colorado River water to irrigate the crops. The lake would have dried up naturally, but with flood irrigation being commonly used, plenty of water ran off the farms into the lake and kept it full. The district holds senior rights to water from the Colorado River according to Doctrine of Prior Appropriation, which is based on whoever first put the water to beneficial use could continue to claim it. In 1930, a wildlife refuge was established on some wetlands along the edge of the lake that had attracted many birds. The fish flourished in the lake and provided a source of food for massive populations of migratory birds. Birdwatchers flocked to this new refuge in the middle of a desert. The continuing intermittent flooding of the Imperial Valley from the Colorado River ended with the construction of Hoover Dam. The

Imperial Dam The Imperial Diversion Dam (National ID # CA10159) is a concrete slab and buttress, ogee weir structure across the California/Arizona border, northeast of Yuma. Completed in 1938, the dam retains the waters of the Colorado River into the Impe ...

, built in 1938, serves as a desilting dam for water entering the irrigation canals. In the 1950s and into the 1960s, the communities expanded as the area's reputation as a

and sport fishery grew. Hotels and yacht clubs were built on the shore along with homes and schools. Resorts in communities like Bombay Beach hosted entertainers such as Frank Sinatra,

The Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by the ...

and Bing Crosby. Yacht clubs held parties at night and golf courses provided recreation. Many people came for boating activities such as water skiing and fishing as stocked fish proliferated. Lakeshore communities grew as vacation homes were built. More than 1.5 million visitors visited annually at the peak.

Catastrophic decline

In the 1970s, scientists issued warnings about the changes coming to this lake with no outlet. Studies that started in the 1960s found a complex problem for which any remediation would be expensive. The Imperial Valley has about of farmland for which

flood irrigation Surface irrigation is where water is applied and distributed over the soil surface by gravity. It is by far the most common form of irrigation throughout the world and has been practiced in many areas virtually unchanged for thousands of years. S ...

is typical. Water from the Colorado River is diverted near Yuma, Arizona, into the

All-American Canal The All-American Canal is an long aqueduct, located in southeastern California. It conveys water from the Colorado River into the Imperial Valley and to nine cities. It is the Imperial Valley's only water source, and replaced the Alamo Canal, w ...

. The canal runs west along the Mexican border and then north into of irrigation channels that crisscross the farms. Gravity carries the agricultural runoff downhill through the New and Alamo rivers to the lake. The water is full of salts,

selenium Selenium is a chemical element with the symbol Se and atomic number 34. It is a nonmetal (more rarely considered a metalloid) with properties that are intermediate between the elements above and below in the periodic table, sulfur and tellurium, ...

, and

fertilizer A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

s (mainly nitrates). As it drains through the soil, the water leaches out ancient salt deposits that also raise the salinity. Evaporation in the desert heat further concentrates the salt. The transformation of the lake made it increasingly inhospitable to wildlife. Before the end of the decade, fish started dying off and bird populations declined. In the late 1970s, a series of heavy tropical storms caused the water level to rapidly rise and flood its banks. The surrounding towns and businesses were severely damaged, many beyond repair. In 1976, Hurricane Kathleen inundated the lakeshore communities and put Bombay Beach completely underwater. Tourism was drastically reduced, and many of the resorts and associated infrastructure were abandoned. The state began to issue odor advisories as the lake began to stink. In the 1990s, the shores were littered with dead fish as the lake had gotten so salty that large die-offs occurred. Fertilizers in the runoff caused massive blooms of algae. When storms churned the lake, botulism spread among the dying tilapia, which were eaten by the birds. During a four-month long period in 1996, 14,000 birds died from eating the fish, nearly 10,000 of which were pelicans. The carcasses were burned in an incinerator 24 hours a day for weeks. The resulting news coverage conveyed a simplified story that implied the lake was a toxic catastrophe filled with water that could be deadly. As a congressman in 1995, former mayor of nearby Palm Springs,

Sonny Bono Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono (; February 16, 1935 – January 5, 1998) was an American singer, actor, and politician who came to fame in partnership with his second wife Cher as the popular singing duo Sonny & Cher. A member of the Republica ...

, advocated for attention to the problems. His wife and some politicians took up the cause as a form of tribute to Bono after his death in a 1998 skiing accident. Congress passed and President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

signed into law the Salton Sea Reclamation Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-372). In 1999, the lake began to recede dramatically. The dropping water level stranded many of the remaining boat docks, residences, and businesses. Water-management priorities were changing including diverting water from agricultural areas to cities. The U.S. Department of the Interior prepared a draft Environmental Impact Report in compliance with the Reclamation Act and working in partnership with the Salton Sea Authority. A Strategic Science Plan and the Bureau of Reclamation's Alternatives Appraisal Report were also added to the voluminous studies of the lake. Before the legislative and scientific recommendations were implemented, priorities shifted away from activities at the lake after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

in 2001. In 2003, the Imperial Irrigation District signed the largest agriculture-to-urban water transfer agreement in US history. Much of its water allocation would go to communities along the California coast at a profit. With a 45-year term, the Quantification Settlement Agreement was a means for the San Diego County Water Authority and other districts to obtain additional water for the growing communities they serve. Local agriculture became more efficient at using water which resulted in the shoreline retreating as less run-off flowed into the lake. Farmers installed sprinklers to replace flood irrigation and used soil measurement devices that tell them when to water. As the Salton Sea shrank, it became saltier than ocean water. The California State Legislature, by legislation enacted in 2003 and 2004, directed the secretary of the

California Resources Agency The California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) is a state cabinet-level agency in the government of California. The institution and jurisdiction of the Natural Resources Agency is provided for in California Government Code sections 12800 and 1280 ...

to prepare a restoration plan for the Salton Sea

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

, and an Environmental Impact Report. The Salton Sea Authority had a consultant study the alternatives and in 2004 issued their preferred alternative. After receiving comments from other agencies, they approved a new report in 2006. They hoped the reports would influence the state as it prepared the proposal mandated by the legislature. The state released an $8.9-billion proposal in 2007 that involved building a horseshoe-shaped outer lake, a berm crossing the center of the lake and an extensive system of dikes, channels and pumps. Due to their concerns about the impact on the lake, the district only approved the water transfer agreement after Governor Gray Davis had signed the 2003 legislation known as the Salton Sea Restoration Act. It stated that it was the "intent of the Legislature that the State of California undertake the restoration of the Salton Sea ecosystem and the permanent protection of the wildlife dependent on that ecosystem". The restoration plan was not implemented as state lawmakers found it too expensive and the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...

hit the economy. Repeated delays and dwindling public interest precluded any real change.

Exposed lakebed impacts air quality

The lake continued to dry up, exposing more lake bed known as playa, and sending nearby communities clouds of toxic dust. A haze incorporating pesticide plumes, exhaust fumes, factory emissions, and the vaporized dust from the lake regularly hangs over the communities in the valley. With a dense blend of

ozone Ozone (), or trioxygen, is an inorganic molecule with the chemical formula . It is a pale blue gas with a distinctively pungent smell. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope , breaking down in the lo ...

and particulate matter, Imperial County became known for some of the worst air quality in the country. Eastern Coachella communities have disproportionately higher rates of

asthma Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, co ...

and respiratory complications because of high concentrations of contaminants in the air. Over 20% of the children in the region have asthma (with the national rate being less than 10%). Scientists are studying how much of this is due to the Salton Sea dust and what is actually in the windblown particles. Ten schools in the Imperial Valley use green, yellow, and red flags signaling air quality for the many children who have asthma. Green means they join their friends on the playground, whereas red means they stay inside all day. Parents can also receive emailed alerts from the Imperial County Air Pollution Control District. Local activists ask if this is an issue of

environmental justice Environmental justice is a social movement to address the unfair exposure of poor and marginalized communities to harms from hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses.Schlosberg, David. (2007) ''Defining Environmental Justic ...

, since the area most impacted is 85% Latinos. Some 650,000 people, many who are farmworkers, live where there are significant exposure to the dust. The public health impacts of continuing not to meet federal air quality standards include the treatment of child and adult asthma,

Cardiac Disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, hea ...

, lung cancer, and increased

mortality rate Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of d ...

s. Lower concentrations of the wind-borne dust travels all the way into Southern California and Arizona. Residents in the

Los Angeles Basin The Los Angeles Basin is a sedimentary Structural basin, basin located in Southern California, in a region known as the Peninsular Ranges. The basin is also connected to an wikt:anomalous, anomalous group of east-west trending chains of mountai ...

, some away, complained about the odor that drifted their way in 2012, after the biomass on the sea bottom was churned by a storm. During the first 15 years after the sale of the Imperial water to San Diego County, the Imperial Irrigation District has been required to put water into the Salton Sea to compensate for the loss of agricultural runoff needed to replenish the sea. As the 2017 deadline for ending the additional mitigation water approached, the district, along with Imperial County, petitioned the California State Water Resources Control Board in 2014 with a demand for state action to fulfill its obligation after years of delays and unfulfilled plans.

Pacific Institute The Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security is an American non-profit research institute created in 1987 to provide independent research and policy analysis on issues of development, environment, and security, with a ...

, an environmental

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

, was warning that the lack of replenishment water was leading to a "period of very rapid deterioration."Perry, Tony (November 21, 2014
"'Looming environmental crisis' at Salton Sea prompts plea for help"
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' The rapidly shrinking sea was a "looming environmental and public health crisis".Perry, Tony (September 3, 2014
"'Salton Sea inaction could cause 'catastrophic change,' report says"
''

'' With the increased shrinkage, dust storms would increase and the rotten-egg smell would reach the coastal cities more frequently. About , or about 10%, of Imperial Valley's arable farmland has been temporarily fallowed to meet the reductions in the water transfer agreement. The farms in the Imperial Valley produce alfalfa, wheat, and vegetables such as carrots and Brussels sprouts. , the most widely planted crop was alfalfa, followed by

bermuda grass ''Cynodon dactylon'', commonly known as Bermuda grass, is a grass found worldwide. It is native to Europe, Africa, Australia and much of Asia. It has been introduced to the Americas. Although it is not native to Bermuda, it is an abundant invasiv ...

and sudan grass. A third of the hay produced here was exported to China, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Japan. Most of exported hay feeds dairy cows, while Japan uses it for

Kobe beef is Wagyu beef from the Tajima strain of Japanese Black cattle, raised in Japan's Hyōgo Prefecture according to rules set out by the Kobe Beef Marketing and Distribution Promotion Association. The meat is a delicacy, valued for its flavor, ...

. On January 1, 2018, 40% less water began flowing into the sea as the 15-year mitigation period ended per the 2003 water transfer agreement. A court decision also forced the Imperial Irrigation District to end a program that had allowed it to equally distribute and cap the amount of water its members receive. Although it had been shrinking for years, this began to lower the water level significantly. As the shore recedes, at least of playa will be exposed by 2045, with additional dust becoming wind blown as the exposed playa dries out. A vertical drop of one foot in the water level can expose thousands of feet of horizontal playa. The state is mainly responsible, as California lawmakers pledged to fund air-quality management projects to mitigate impacts from the 2003 water transfer agreement. Over the years, local, state and federal bodies have found minimal success dealing with the dust from the exposed playa. To reduce wind-borne dust, the district has a program known as vegetation enhancement and surface roughening, which includes plowing

furrows A plough or plow ( US; both ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses, but in modern farms are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, iron or ...

on newly exposed playa within property owned by the district. Fugitive dust, consisting of very small particles suspended in air, is being studied to distinguish between playa dust and desert emissions that are primarily made up of mineral dust from soil. The Imperial County Air Quality Management District, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, and the University of California at Riverside School of Medicine along with the environmental justice group Comite Civico Del Valle are using mobile and stationary air quality monitoring units in the effort to protect the health of the nearby residents.

The Salton Sea Management Program

The Salton Sea Task Force was formed by the state in 2015 by Governor

Jerry Brown Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected Secretary of ...

's administration. The Natural Resources Agency released the Salton Sea Management Program (SSMP) in March 2017. The SSMP proposes constructing of habitat restoration and dust suppression projects on lakebed areas that have been, or will be, exposed at the Salton Sea by the year 2028. This will improve conditions for residents and wildlife. The initial 10-year plan will cover less than half of the dry lakebed that researchers say will be exposed during that time. The state initially budgeted $80.5 million to begin designing the wetlands without a commitment that the program will ever be fully funded. The projected cost to design and construct the improvements is $383 million. The focus was no longer on restoring the lake but presenting a feasible plan with a budget that legislators would gradually fund over the ten-year period. The 10-year plan won't fix everything so state and local officials continue to seek ways to deal with the problems. Salton Sea Management Program Monitoring and Adaptive Management Implementation Plan is being developed that will prioritize and phase-in implementation of the 2013 USGS Salton Sea Ecosystem Monitoring and Assessment Plan. The first state-funded project was the Torres-Martinez Wetland Project. The Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians partnered with the state to restore shallow wetlands along the northern edge of the sea that was destroyed by a massive storm in 2012. This prototype project was completed in April 2018. In November 2019, an emergency was declared because of the "heavily polluted New River, which empties into the Salton Sea". The Imperial County Board of Supervisors were hoping that this would accelerate the restoration projects by enabling the state to obtain federal funding. Nearly all the state's funding comes from bond measures for the Salton Sea projects. Since 2000, California voters have approved five bond measures . In February 2020, the

California Natural Resources Agency The California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) is a state cabinet-level agency in the government of California. The institution and jurisdiction of the Natural Resources Agency is provided for in California Government Code sections 12800 and 128 ...

finished the "Bruchard Road Dust Suppression Project" which, although only , was the first dust suppression project to be completed under the Salton Sea Management Program: Phase 1: 10 Year Plan (August 2018). Construction began on the ambitious Species Conservation Habitat Project in January 2021 on the small delta of the New River. The $206.5 million project is building ponds and wetlands on both sides of the mouth of this highly polluted river on the southern bank of the sea. The federal government said in November 2022, it will spend $250 million over four years for the project.

Water importation review

Many concepts have been proposed on how to deal with the problems. The idea of importing seawater from the Pacific Ocean or the Sea of Cortez in Mexico has been around for a long time. The area's plentiful geothermal power could be used to desalinate the water. Around 2004, Aqua Genesis Ltd proposed such a project that would sell the nonsaline water. Their proposal involved the construction of over of pipes and tunneling that would have provided of water to Southern California coastal cities each year.

Berkshire Hathaway Energy Berkshire Hathaway Energy (previously known as MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company until 2014) is a holding company that is 92% owned by Berkshire Hathaway. Berkshire has owned a controlling stake since 1999. The company also controls power dist ...

has a subsidiary that already operates 10 geothermal plants in the area, and was developing a seawater desalination proposal. In 2018, the

requested proposals to increase waterflow to the sea to reduce dust and dust-borne toxins. The 11 proposals ranged in cost from $300 million to several billion dollars. Salton Sea homes

A June 9, 2020, research report stated that the cost of "transferring water from agricultural users to the Salton Sea" would be lower and achievable using existing infrastructure. The aqueduct proposal, and others, hung on the outcome of a feasibility study. The state-appointed panel of experts rejected the idea after a yearlong review.

Ecology

Salinity

The water of the Salton Sea has a salinity of 44 grams of salt per liter, greater than that of the Pacific Ocean (35 g/L). The lack of an outflow means the Salton Sea does not have a natural stabilization system; it is very dynamic. Fluctuations in the water level caused by variations in agricultural runoff, the ancient salt deposits in the lake bed, and the relatively high salinity of the inflow feeding the sea are all causing increasing salinity. The concentration has been increasing at a rate of about 3% per year. About 3.6 million

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

s of salt are deposited in the valley each year. An undated report on the University of California: Imperial County website provided these specifics: "Salton Sea salinity is about 44,000 mg/L, that is about 4.4% salt. The amount of salts that is deposited in the Imperial Valley agricultural land with irrigation water is about 4 million tons of salts annually. To maintain crop productivities, equal amount of salts must be leached from the root zone". Fertilizer runoffs have resulted in

eutrophication Eutrophication is the process by which an entire body of water, or parts of it, becomes progressively enriched with minerals and nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus. It has also been defined as "nutrient-induced increase in phytopla ...

, with large

algal bloom An algal bloom or algae bloom is a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae in freshwater or marine water systems. It is often recognized by the discoloration in the water from the algae's pigments. The term ''algae'' encompass ...

s and elevated bacterial levels. By the 1970s, the runoff which was full of salty chemicals led to a warning that the salinity of the lake would no longer sustain wildlife. By January 2020, the salinity of the Salton Sea was double that of the Atlantic Ocean. Both the hypersalinity and presence of contaminants in the Salton Sea triggered massive die-offs in the fish and avian populations; salt water carries less oxygen than fresh water, which was further depleted by algal blooms and by extreme temperatures during the summer period. Salton Sea salt pond

Fish population

Dead Fishes on the shores of Salton City

The

desert pupfish The desert pupfish (''Cyprinodon macularius'') is a rare species of bony fish in the family Cyprinodontidae. It is a small fish, typically less than 7.62 cm (3 in) in length. Males are generally larger than females, and have bright-blue ...

is the only native fish species in the sea, and is a federally listed endangered species in the United States. This freshwater fish, notable for its ability to withstand the rising salinity of the Salton Sea, can survive salinities ranging from freshwater to twice as salty as seawater. The body was initially a freshwater lake and was stocked with

tilapia Tilapia ( ) is the common name for nearly a hundred species of cichlid fish from the coelotilapine, coptodonine, heterotilapine, oreochromine, pelmatolapiine, and tilapiine tribes (formerly all were "Tilapiini"), with the economically most ...

, gulf croaker, orangemouth corvina, and

sargo The sargo or white seabream (''Diplodus sargus'') is a species of seabream native to the eastern Atlantic and western Indian Oceans. It is found from the Bay of Biscay southwards to South Africa, including Madeira and the Canary Islands, the Med ...

, which sustained an important sport fishery and provided food for birds. By the 1960s, its rising salinity had begun to jeopardize some of these species. A September 2019 report stated that 20 years earlier, "there were some 100 million fish in the Sea. Now, more than 97% of those fish are gone". It is now too saline for most species of fish. Massive fish kills involve the oxygen-depleting combination of summer sun and salt. The fish suffocate as salt water carries less oxygen than fresh water. The dead fish wash up in mass quantities on the beaches. Introduced tilapia (hybrid

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

× Wami) can tolerate the high salinity levels and pollution. As of 2014, other fresh and

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estu ...

water fish species lived in the rivers and canals that fed the Salton Sea, including

redbelly tilapia The redbelly tilapia (''Coptodon zillii'', syn. ''Tilapia zillii''), also known as the Zille's redbreast tilapia or St. Peter's fish (a name also used for other tilapia in Israel), is a species of fish in the cichlid family. This fish is found ...

, threadfin shad, carp,

red shiner The red shiner or red-horse minnow (''Cyprinella lutrensis'') is a North American species of freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae. They are deep-bodied and laterally compressed,Farringer R.T., III, A.A. Echelle, and S.F. Lehtinen. 1979. Repr ...

, channel catfish, white catfish,

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, bu ...

, mosquitofish, and

sailfin molly The sailfin molly (''Poecilia latipinna'') is a species of fish of the genus '' Poecilia''. They inhabit fresh, brackish, salt, and coastal waters from North Carolina to Texas and the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. Taxonomy The sailfin molly was ...

. Tilapia populations have reached such low volumes such that the fish-eating birds in the area cannot be sustained anymore. Scientists have approximated that if the sea's salinity reaches levels of 70 ppt (more likely to occur than not due to the end of mitigation flows at the start of 2018), there won't be any species of fish left that will be able to survive in the sea's main body. As the decline of Tilapia populations in the Salton Sea continues, there has been an immense proliferation of the water boatman population which do serve as feed for "a limited number of aquatic and shorebird species". A direct concern of the potential eradication of fish species from the sea include mosquito production, which is usually abundant in high salinity salt marshes but have been low due to the presence of fish. There have been worries about this potential outcome as mosquitoes in warm regions have been known to "act as vectors of West Nile virus, Western equine encephalitis and St. Louis encephalitis". The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment developed a safe eating advisory for fish caught in the Salton Sea based on levels of mercury or

PCBs Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are highly carcinogenic chemical compounds, formerly used in industrial and consumer products, whose production was banned in the United States by the Toxic Substances Control Act in 1979 and internationally by t ...

found in local species. As of 2009, all species were considered acceptable for all populations.

Avian population

The Salton Sea has been termed a "crown jewel of avian biodiversity" by Milt Friend of the Salton Sea Science Office. It hosts "the most diverse and probably most significant populations of bird life in the continental United States, rivaled only by Big Bend, Texas;" over 400 species have been documented. The Salton Sea is also a major resting stop on the Pacific Flyway. A December 2018 report by the National Geographic Society stated: "Nearly all of California's population of eared grebes, for example, stop over at the lake, and at least a third of all the white pelicans living in North America ..." The report expressed concern about the reducing input of water into the Sea and the increasing salinity. "Without that extra water, the lake's shrinking will start to accelerate—making it saltier, smaller, less welcoming to the birds that rely on it during migration". Both the hypersalinity and presence of contaminants in the Salton Sea triggered massive die-offs in the fish and avian populations and the contamination promoted the outbreak and spread of diseases such as avian cholera. In turn, the loss of several species of fish that the avian population depended on for food increased their risk of starvation, exacerbating their decline.

Birdwatchers Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device like binoculars or a telescope, by ...

in 2017 reported that most of the American white pelicans, double-crested cormorants, and eared grebes have disappeared.

Vegetation

According to the A. W. Kuchler U.S. potential natural vegetation types, the area roughly within of the sandy shoreline of the Salton Sea would have a

/ greasewood (''40'') vegetation type and a Great Basin shrubland (''7'') vegetation form.

Geography

This saline, endorheic

rift lake A rift lake is a lake formed as a result of subsidence related to movement on faults within a rift zone, an area of extensional tectonics in the continental crust. They are often found within rift valleys and may be very deep. Rift lakes may be ...

on the

at the southern end of the U.S. state of California lies between, and within, the Imperial and

Coachella Coachella may refer to: * Coachella, California * Coachella Canal, in California * Coachella (festival), an annual music and arts festival in California * "Coachella – Woodstock in My Mind", a 2017 song by Lana del Rey See also

* Coachell ...

valleys, all of which lie within the larger

, a pull-apart basin that stretches to the

in Mexico. The lake occupies the lowest elevations of the trough, known as the

Salton Sink The Salton Sink is the low point of an endorheic basin, a closed drainage system with no outflows to other bodies of water, in the Colorado Desert sub-region of the Sonoran Desert. The sink falls within the larger Salton Trough and separates th ...

, where the lake surface is below sea level as of January 2018. The deepest point of the lake is only higher than the lowest point of

Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. During summer, it is the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth. Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the ...

. The Salton Sea is about , though it varies in dimensions and area with fluctuations in agricultural runoff and rainfall. The New,

Whitewater Whitewater forms in a rapid context, in particular, when a river's gradient changes enough to generate so much turbulence that air is trapped within the water. This forms an unstable current that froths, making the water appear opaque and ...

, and Alamo rivers, combined with agricultural runoff, are the primary sources that feed the lake. With an estimated surface area of or , the Salton Sea is the largest lake in California by surface area. The average annual inflow is less than , which is enough to maintain a maximum depth of and a total volume of about . However, due to changes in water apportionments agreed upon for the Colorado River under the Quantification Settlement Agreement of 2003, the surface area of the sea is expected to decrease by 60% between 2013 and 2021.

Ownership

The land under the lake is a patchwork of ownership spread across three primary entities: the federal government – mostly the Bureau of Reclamation and the Bureau of Land Management, the Imperial Irrigation District (IID), and the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians.

Climate

According to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

system, the Salton Sea has a

Hot desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

(''BWh''). According to the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

, the Plant Hardiness zone is 9b with an average annual extreme minimum temperature of 28.5 °F (−1.9 °C). The temperature of the surface water changes with the seasonally varying air temperature. Winter surface water can reach temperatures as low as and summer surface water highs can reach .

Geology

Earthquakes and tectonic setting

The Salton Sea and surrounding basin sits over the

, San Jacinto Fault, Imperial Fault Zone, and a " stepover fault" shear zone system. Geologists have determined that previous flooding episodes from the Colorado River have been linked to earthquakes along the San Andreas Fault.

Sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect objects on o ...

and other instruments were used to map the Salton Sea's underwater faults during the study. During the period when the basin was filled by Lake Cahuilla, a much larger inland sea, earthquakes higher than magnitude 7 occurred roughly every 180 years, the last one occurring within decades of 1700. Computer models suggest the

normal fault In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tecton ...

s in the area are most vulnerable to

deviatoric stress In continuum mechanics, the Cauchy stress tensor \boldsymbol\sigma, true stress tensor, or simply called the stress tensor is a second order tensor named after Augustin-Louis Cauchy. The tensor consists of nine components \sigma_ that completely ...

loading by filling in of water. Currently, a risk still exists for an earthquake of magnitude 7 to 8. Simulations also showed, in the Los Angeles area, shaking and thus damage would be more severe for a San Andreas earthquake that propagated along the fault from the south, rather than from the north. Such an earthquake also raises the risk for soil liquefaction in the Imperial Valley region. The effective drainage divide that separates the Salton Sea from the Gulf of California is about in elevation and is located near Delta, northeastern Baja California State, Mexico, south-southeast of

Mexicali Mexicali (; ) is the capital city of the Mexican state of Baja California. The city, seat of the Mexicali Municipality, has a population of 689,775, according to the 2010 census, while the Calexico–Mexicali metropolitan area is home to 1,000,0 ...

. Past

sea level rise Globally, sea levels are rising due to human-caused climate change. Between 1901 and 2018, the globally averaged sea level rose by , or 1–2 mm per year on average.IPCC, 2019Summary for Policymakers InIPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cry ...

may partially be responsible for the salinity of the lake, while potential future changes in sea levels could occur. However, other factors such as hydrothermal vents,

diffusion Diffusion is the net movement of anything (for example, atoms, ions, molecules, energy) generally from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration. Diffusion is driven by a gradient in Gibbs free energy or chemica ...

of salt from minerals and sediment, including concentrated brine, and

evaporite An evaporite () is a water- soluble sedimentary mineral deposit that results from concentration and crystallization by evaporation from an aqueous solution. There are two types of evaporite deposits: marine, which can also be described as ocean ...

s are another contributor to salinity, as is the recent lowering of lake levels raising the salinity, though sedimentary records show the lake surface elevation reached levels above world sea level in the 1500s.

Volcanism

Evidence of geothermal activity is visible. The

Salton Buttes The Salton Buttes are a group of volcanoes in California, on the Salton Sea. They consist of a -long row of five lava domes, named Mullet Island, North Red Hill, Obsidian Butte, Rock Hill and South Red Hill. They are closely associated with a ...

are volcanoes in the geothermal field of the same name. Mudpots and

mud volcano A mud volcano or mud dome is a landform created by the eruption of mud or slurries, water and gases. Several geological processes may cause the formation of mud volcanoes. Mud volcanoes are not true igneous volcanoes as they do not produce la ...

es are found on the eastern side of the Salton Sea, including the mobile Niland Geyser. The area is used for geothermal electricity generation, with plants located along the southeastern shore of the Salton Sea in Imperial County.

Lithium Production

The geothermal activity below the Salton Sea loosens up

lithium Lithium (from el, λίθος, lithos, lit=stone) is a chemical element with the symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the least dense solid ...

that can be mined. Due to increased demand for lithium, which is crucial for electric-vehicle battery production, the Salton Sea area is attracting attention, and the extraction of lithium is expected to boost the local economy. The brine contains lithium, calcium, sodium and other minerals that are very complex to separate. The California Energy Commission estimates the sea might produce 600k metric tons of lithium carbonate per year. In July 2021, General Motors announced that it was partnering with Controlled Thermal Resources to develop a combined lithium extraction and power generation facility in the Hell's Kitchen geothermal field in the Salton Sea, employing a closed-loop process. Brine will be extracted from the ground, with geothermal steam being used to drive a turbine generating electricity, and reacting with the brine to separate the lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate used for battery production. Berkshire Hathaway Energy has a subsidiary that operates 10 geothermal plants in the area. Berkshire's BHE Renewables division plans to open a lithium carbonate pilot plant in the spring of 2023.

Communities

The U.S. Navy conducted a preliminary inspection of the Salton Sea in January 1940, and the Salton Sea Test Base (SSTB, run by Sandia Labs) was initially commissioned as the Naval Auxiliary Air Station Salton Sea, in October 1942. The SSTB, just to the southeast of Salton City, originally functioned as an operational and training base for seaplanes. Additional activities at the base included experimental testing of solid-fuel plane-launched rockets, jet-assist take-off testing, aeroballistic testing of inert atomic weapon test units at land and marine target areas, training bombing at marine targets, testing of the effects of long-term storage on atomic weapons, testing of the Project Mercury space capsule parachute landing systems, parachute training and testing, and military training exercises. The base was abandoned in 1978. The Salton Sea had some success as a resort area, with Salton City, Salton Sea Beach, and Desert Shores, on the western shore and Desert Beach, North Shore, and Bombay Beach, built on the eastern shore in the 1950s. Due to the increasing salinity and pollution of the lake over the years from agricultural runoff and other sources, the communities substantially shrank in size, or have been abandoned. The smell of the lake, combined with the stench of the decaying fish, also contributed to the decline of the tourist industry around the Salton Sea. The US Geological Survey describes the smell as "objectionable", "noxious", "unique", and "pervasive".

Arts and culture

A 2020 article provided this comment about the settlements around the Salton Sea:

Since 2011, Bombay Beach and its surrounds have been reinvented as a destination for desert art. It's not alone in that distinction – south of the city lie the towns of Niland and Slab City, other areas that have attracted artists and led to creations like East Jesus and Salvation Mountain.

Some people are visiting the Salton Sea and the surrounding settlements to explore the abandoned structures and see the squatter settlement of Slab City. The town of Niland is southeast of the sea, with a population of 1,006. In late June 2020, a fire in Niland caused a great deal of damage, displacing 112 people; by that time, the estimated population had diminished to 500. The population of Bombay Beach declined for years and the buildings were rotting away, but some people had moved into the settlement. A news item in April 2018 stated that it was "enjoying a rebirth of sorts with an influx of artists, intellectuals and hipsters who have turned it into a bohemian playground". The population estimate for 2020 was 415 persons, higher than the official census number of 295 in 2010.

Recreation

The Salton Sea State Recreation Area offers hunting, fishing, swimming, and camping to visitors on the northeastern side of the sea.

Powerboat racing

"Low

barometric pressure Atmospheric pressure, also known as barometric pressure (after the barometer), is the pressure within the atmosphere of Earth. The standard atmosphere (symbol: atm) is a unit of pressure defined as , which is equivalent to 1013.25 millibars, 7 ...

and greater

water density Water () is a polar inorganic compound that is at room temperature a tasteless and odorless liquid, which is nearly colorless apart from an inherent hint of blue. It is by far the most studied chemical compound and is described as the "univer ...

make the Salton Sea the fastest body of water in the world for speedboat racing," according to an article in the January–February 1950 issue of ''National Motorist'' magazine. (This statement, however, erroneously conflates low barometric pressure with low altitude, when in fact the opposite is true, and the extremely low altitude of the region provides ''higher'' barometric pressure, beneficial for

internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal c ...

s) "The low altitude was thought to be ideal for carburetion and there was talk that this was the 'fastest body of water in the world.'" Beginning in the late 1920s, these properties have made the Salton Sea attractive as a venue for such races. Although these natural advantages were at first attacked as unfair by other courses, by the mid 1930s the Salton Sea racing organization was backed by the National Power Boat Association and attracting some of the best boats and drivers in the US. Races were held at Desert Beach annually between 1941 and 1951 and subsequently at other beaches, ultimately on the west side of the Sea. From 1961 through 1965, the Sea hosted the Salton City 500, a marathon endurance race which attracted drivers as notable as

Mickey Thompson Michael Lee "Mickey" Thompson (December 7, 1928March 16, 1988) was an American auto racing builder and promoter. A hot rodder since his youth, Thompson increasingly pursued land speed records in his late 20s and early 30s.

and astronaut

Gordon Cooper Leroy Gordon "Gordo" Cooper Jr. (March 6, 1927 – October 4, 2004) was an American aerospace engineer, test pilot, United States Air Force pilot, and the youngest of the seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, the first human spa ...

. After a lengthy hiatus, in 2008 racing returned when new world records were set by a sprint boat at the Salton Sea Speed Week. The winner of the bathtub race of 1970 crossed the to the east shore and back in one hour and four minutes.

In popular culture

Boat stuck in ground at the ghost town Marina of Salton Sea

Films

* '' The Salton Sea'' (2002), by Tony Gayton, directed by D.J. Caruso and starring

Val Kilmer Val Edward Kilmer (born December 31, 1959) is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer found fame after appearances in comedy films, starting with ''Top Secret!'' (1984) and ''Real Genius'' (1985), as well as the military action film ...

Vincent D'Onofrio Vincent Philip D'Onofrio (; born June 30, 1959) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his supporting and leading roles in both film and television. He has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. His roles include Private Leonar ...

and

Peter Sarsgaard John Peter Sarsgaard (; born March 7, 1971) is an American actor. His first feature role was in '' Dead Man Walking'' in 1995. He then appeared in the 1998 independent films ''Another Day in Paradise'' and ''Desert Blue''. That same year, Sarsga ...

. * '' Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea'' (2006), by filmmakers Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer is narrated by

John Waters John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including '' Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), '' Pink Flamingos'' (1972) and '' Fe ...

. Melding high camp with stark realism the film covers the first 100 years of the history of the Salton Sea featuring rare archival photos and footage, plus interviews with the residents who call the Salton Sea home. * A visit to the Salton Sea inspired filmmaker

Curtis Harrington Gene Curtis Harrington (September 17, 1926 – May 6, 2007) was an American film and television director whose work included experimental films, horror films and episodic television. He is considered one of the forerunners of New Queer Cinema ...

to make his dreamlike short film ''On the Edge'' (1949), which extensively uses the bubbling mudpots on the edge of the sea. In a 1971 interview, Harrington stated, "The location I used is entirely covered by water now; the sea has risen to cover it." * The film, '' The Monster That Challenged the World'' (1957), deals with gigantic prehistoric mollusks that are reawakened after residing, in suspended animation, at the bottom of the Salton Sea. * '' Bombay Beach'' is a 2011 documentary film directed and produced by Israeli filmmaker Alma Har'el. Using the failed 1950s development boom in Bombay Beach, the film is a dreamlike poem with three personal stories. * The short documentary, ''The Useless Sea'' (2016), is a film focusing on the environmental challenges and the beauty surrounding the Salton Sea. * '' Miracle in the Desert: The Rise and Fall of the Salton Sea'' (2020) is a documentary that tells the full origin of the creation of the sea, as well as the real estate boom and bust from 1950 to 1970 while examining the exodus of people from the sea and the current environmental crisis it faces.

Television

* The

History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...

's 2006 episode "Engineering Disasters 18" (#13-04), from the television documentary series '' Modern Marvels'', describes the combined manmade and natural events leading to the creation of the Salton Sea in the early 20th century, its brief popularity as a resort destination midcentury, and its subsequent decline due to high salinity and farm runoff. Impacts to Salton Sea fish and bird populations are addressed and future plans to rescue the sea are described. * ''

National Geographic Explorer ''National Geographic Explorer'' (or simply ''Explorer'') is an American documentary television series that originally premiered on Nickelodeon on April 7, 1985, after having been produced as a less costly and intensive alternative to PBS's ' ...

'' was present on June 10, 2018, to record an encounter between supporters of a

flat Earth The flat-Earth model is an archaic and scientifically disproven conception of Earth's shape as a plane or disk. Many ancient cultures subscribed to a flat-Earth cosmography, including Greece until the classical period (5th century BC), t ...

and members of the

Independent Investigations Group The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a US nonprofit organization that works to mitigate belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal, as well as to fight the influence of religion in government. History The Center for Inquiry was established in ...

. An experiment successfully demonstrated the curvature of the earth via the disappearance over distance of boat-based and shore-based targets.

Music

* The video for

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

's " In the Closet" (1992) was filmed at the Salton Sea. Clips of Jackson dancing on the set of that video were used in the video for his song " A Place with No Name" (2014). * The video for Kesha's " Praying" (2017) was partly filmed at the Salton Sea. *

Mitski Mitski Miyawaki (born Mitsuki Laycock; September 27, 1990), known professionally by the mononym Mitski, is a Japanese-born American singer-songwriter. Mitski self-released her first two albums, '' Lush'' (2012) and '' Retired from Sad, New Caree ...

's song "Drunk Walk Home" (2014) opens with the couplet "I will retire to the Salton Sea / at the age of 23." This is a reference to the end-of-the-road perception of the Salton Sea. The hostility to life the Sea poses to fish can be a metaphor for giving up on life at a young age through depression. *Sheverb recorded the album "Once Upon A Time In Bombay Beach" in the nearly abandoned town of Bombay Beach in early 2020. *The album cover art for Weyes Blood's " Front Row Seat to Earth" (2016) was photographed beside the Salton Sea. The sea served as inspiration for the beginning of the album process. Mering described it as "a completely desolate wasteland, full of mass extinction, brought on by humankind." Salton Sea appears in music videos of two of the album's singles, "Generation Why" and "Used To Be".

Video games

* In the video game '' Grand Theft Auto V'' (2013), a large lake called the Alamo Sea is based on the Salton Sea; Sandy Shores, a town that sits on the lake's southern edge, is based on the town of Bombay Beach.

Literature

* In

Blue Labyrinth ''Blue Labyrinth'' is a thriller novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. The book was released on November 11, 2014, by Grand Central Publishing. This is the fourteenth book in the Special Agent Pendergast series. Plot —Review by ''Kirku ...

, by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, the abandoned resort areas of the Salton Sea serve as one setting visited and investigated by FBI Special Agent

Aloysius Pendergast Aloysius Xingu Leng Pendergast is a fictional character appearing in novels by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. He first appeared as a supporting character in their first novel, '' Relic'' (1995), and in its 1997 sequel '' Reliquary'', bef ...

. * In

Robert A. Heinlein Robert Anson Heinlein (; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accu ...

’s short story "Water is for Washing", the Salton Sea is the site of a catastrophic flood when an earthquake shatters the range of

alluvial deposits Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

separating the

from the

, precipitating a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

moving north to transiently drown these lowlands.

Legends

*In the legend of the lost pearl ship of Juan de Iturbe, the Spanish explorer abandons a ship full of gems in Lake Cahuilla.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * *

External links

* , California Natural Resources Agency
Salton Sea Management Efforts
California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Salton Sea Unit
California Department of Water Resources, supports the Salton Sea Management Program (SSMP)
The Salton Sea Authority
a joint powers agreement: counties of Riverside and Imperial, Coachella Valley Water District and Imperial Irrigation District
Salton Sea Community Outreach, Education & Engagement Program
partnership between Comite Civico del Valle, Inc. (CCV) & the California Department of Water Resources (DWR)
Salton Sea Management Program (SSMP)
US Army Corps of Engineers, Los Angeles District

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation

College of Sciences, San Diego State University
Salton Sea Ecosystem Monitoring and Assessment Plan
Open-File Report 2013–1133,

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

Salton Sea Project
KESQ

* 2011 (7 mins) * . KQED, 2014 (61 mins) {{authority control Coachella Valley Disasters in California Endorheic lakes of California Engineering failures Environment of California Environmental disasters in the United States Geography of the Colorado Desert Imperial Valley Important Bird Areas of California Lakes of California Lakes of Imperial County, California Lakes of Riverside County, California Lakes of Southern California Lakes of the Great Basin Natural history of Imperial County, California Saline lakes of the United States Salton Trough Shrunken lakes Tourist attractions in Imperial County, California Watersheds of California Eutrophication