Posted on 05/29/2015 11:06:23 AM PDT by CedarDave
The Salton Sea is the largest lake in California, 360 square miles of unlikely liquid pooled in the middle of the Sonoran Desert. Now the sea is slipping away. The Salton Sea needs more water — but so does just about every other place in California. And what is happening here perfectly illustrates the fight over water in the West, where epic drought has revived decades-old battles and the simple solutions have all been tried.
Allowing the Salton Sea to shrink unabated would be catastrophic, experts say. Dried lake bed, called playa, is lighter and flies farther than ordinary soil. Choking clouds of particulate matter driven by powerful desert winds could seed health problems for 650,000 people as far away as Los Angeles. The effects would be even worse along the lake, where communities already fail federal air-quality standards and suffer the highest asthma rates in the state.
But the fate of the Salton Sea depends on a complicated series of deals that pit farms against cities, water rights against water needs, old ways of life against the new. The drought has forced a reconsideration of these agreements, with each side jealously guarding its claim to what little water is left.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
You’re not allowed to think that...logic is ILLEGAL
So environmentalists now love a man-made lake? I thought it was abhorrent, an environmental disaster. Now they love it?
On a positive note, if it does dry up it won’t be covered by those new Obama EPA bodies-of-water regs.
Great summation of the area. My folks owned a lot just North of Salton City in the 60’s at the peak of the “resort” era. I believe they unloaded sometime in the early to mid 70’s. I remember a lot of good times boating and fishing at that lake when I was a kid.
The engineers miscalculated the flow of the river and it swamped the diversion canals.
The Salton Sea was definitely not where the river would have flowed if it had not been tampered with, and it is definitely not what was planned, but its existence was entirely the result of man's interference.
Move Burning Man there.
Sorry, but no cigar. Agriculture uses 80% of the water in California. Of the 20% that's left, most goes to landscaping--a lot of it to the 125 desert golf courses in the Palm Springs area. About 8% goes to actual household use, with affluent areas using more per person than lower income areas. Illegal aliens make up approximately 10% of the population, so it's hard to make a case they use more than 1% of the water.
How does the water flow back up the Colorado River from Mexico and into the Salton Sea?
Bury it...................
There is a small heavily polluted river (Rio Nuevo or New River) which flows north out of Mexico near Mexicali and feeds into the Salton Sea.
The use of "man made" makes it sound as if was done by design, not by accident.
The salt water canal is a very good idea.
Another good idea would be to fill it up with sewage from all of California. Raise it above sea level. Would also bury the waste already there safely under ground.
Heck, hauling garbage there would give Moonbeam an actually practical reason to build a bullet train.
Interestingly, what prevented the Colorado River from submerging the area in recent geologic times was the buildup of silt from the river that had built a natural berm which kept the river from diverting westward; it also kept the river about 30 feet above sea level. That was what was breached by the building of the canals.
A similar situation occurs today on the lower Mississippi where the river wants to create a new natural pathway to the Gulf of Mexico that bypasses New Orleans. This has led to the Corps of Engineers building an immense series of release gates to divert water to the Atchafalaya River in times of high water. If those gates were not there or if a future record flow overwhelms them, the Mississippi would create a new channel to the gulf that likely would be irreversible.
Weren’t the first and last deaths on that project father and son?
Thanks for the info, I have only heard of the Salton Sea and that was probably 20 years ago. Is it worth exploring or should I stick with Death Valley??
I haven’t been to either in a decade, but I think Death Valley is much more interesting than the Salton Sea. But there are interesting places pretty close to the Salton Sea, like Joshua Tree, San Jacinto mountains, Palm Springs.
Take a look at the photos and decide for yourself, though I agree with MrShoop. But plan your visit to either for late fall through early spring.
"Birds still love the lake. They flock here year round and especially during migratory flights. The Salton Sea provides habitat for more than 400 species — the second-greatest diversity of bird species in the United States. The National Audubon Society considers it a bird site of global significance."
Then:
"Bird populations would plummet if the lake shrank further, if wetlands disappeared and fish populations withered. But it is the dust that scares people. After years of farm runoff, the lake bed is toxic, with high levels of arsenic, selenium and even traces of the banned pesticide DDT."
... DDT, which was supposed to erase bird populations worldwide, I thought.
I grew up in Southern California less than 70 miles from the Salton Sea and never saw the place.
If they want to put a natural freshwater lake back in California, then re-flood Owens Valley up in Inyo-Mono county and tell Los Angeles to call it quits.
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