The Salton Sea is the largest lake in California, located in Southern Riverside. It’s a deserted lake filled with many deadly toxins and chemicals. It used to be extremely popular and had beautiful resorts with more visitors than Yosemite National Park. Now, “Approximately 23,000 children and adults have been diagnosed with asthma in Imperial County”, The Imperial Country Asthma Profile stated. The rate of asthma in children in Imperial Valley is twice as high as in any other place in California. But what does the Salton Sea have to do with the increase of asthma?
History of the Salton Sea:
The Salton Sea didn’t always exist. In 1850, a pioneer named Charles Rockwood found the soil in the area extraordinarily fertile and perfect for growing crops. He wanted to take advantage of the situation and create a canal from the Colorado River to the soil. After trial and error in trying to find investors, Rockwood was offered $150,000 to make the canal, and construction started in April 1900. In 1905, around 10,000 farmers lived in what was now called the Imperial Valley. Rockwood’s plan was highly successful. The farmers grew almost all their crops at a rapid rate with ease. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long after this success that Rockwood approached a considerable problem.
The canal was clogged with silt that would prevent water from coming into the valley. The lack of water almost drove Rockwood to bankruptcy. He used $200,000 to fix the problem. He tried creating a new intake in the Colorado River to allow the water to flow more easily. Unfortunately, there was an unexpected flood that destroyed homes. Rockwood eventually gave up and turned in his company to the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1906. No matter what anyone tried to prevent the floods, they kept coming and destroying anything that got in their way. Many of the homes and fields were completely underwater. President Roosevelt intervened and created a dam between the Colorado River and the canal, stopping water from breaching. All that was left was a body of water with 300 square miles and more than 30 feet in depth. That is how The Salton Sea was created.
The Salton Sea was most popular in the 1950s and 60s. People had constructed stores with many visitors, which resulted in the openings of hotels and resorts trying to profit off of the beauty of The Salton Sea. People came to swim, camp, play golf, ride boats, and do several other activities. Celebrities around the world came to The Salton Sea, it was so popular, but hotels were overcharging and people got sick of the amount of money they lost from spending money at the Salton Sea. People lost interest in it, and it became less and less popular. In 1976, a flood raised the Sea level and flooded everything. Residents had no choice but to abandon their homes and properties. People only used the Salton Sea to fish, but in 1985, the local health department of Imperial Valley found that the fish in the Salton Sea were high in salinity and eutrophication. Everyone stopped coming because warning signs and announcements spread, causing people to get scared and leave. At this point, people started seeing change in the Salton Sea.
The current condition of the sea:
According to The California Department of Fish and Wildlife, “Because the Sea is a terminal lake, increasingly concentrated salts have resulted in a salinity that is currently 50 percent greater than that of the ocean.” The excessive salt in the Salton Sea makes it inhabitable for fish to live in. In 2003, the Imperial Irrigation District decided that water from the sea would be used throughout San Diego and Los Angeles. Because no water is coming into the lake anymore, the water level is rapidly decreasing at half a foot each year. The decrease in water exposes dust that gets picked up by the wind and creates extremely harmful dust storms known for causing asthma in The Imperial Valley. The more water used, the bigger the dust storms and the risk. The dust gets carried miles away from the actual body of water, meaning that even though there are no residents who live close enough to see the Sea, they still get affected by the pollution of the sea. Even LA is starting to suffer from the dust storms. If nothing is done, the Salton Sea dust storms may reach the people of Corona and cause asthma throughout Southern California.
What is being done now?
A documentary called ‘Miracle in the Desert: The Rise and Fall of the Salton Sea’ states, “The amount of money that the state of California has set aside for restoration at the Salton Sea is an absolute joke.” Those who are trying to improve the condition of the Sea have 3% of the 9 billion dollars that was agreed to be used by the state for the restoration of the Sea. They are incredibly behind on the restoration progress they wanted to achieve. There is currently nothing they can do about the Sea. The Save Our Sea campaign is working to clean the area and plans to make a canal from the Gulf of California to the Salton Sea. This could save the problem of water shortage and pollution in the air, but it could also follow history and end in more devastation.
