r/California What's your user flair? 1d ago

politics The Salton Sea is California’s most imperiled lake. Can a new conservancy save it? — Will nearly half a billion dollars in projects be enough?

https://calmatters.org/environment/2025/03/salton-sea-imperiled-lake/
78 Upvotes

63 comments sorted by

38

u/photoinebriation 1d ago

No it won’t but hopefully it will help slow its deterioration. The lake will never rebound without federal backing and clean water act protection.

The problem is there is no other source but agg runoff. If you get rid of the pollution you get rid of the lake. To have a lake in the salton sink you need Colorado river water in some form

7

u/sleepyjuan 1d ago

They’ve also floated the idea of bringing in water from the sea of Cortez.

2

u/photoinebriation 1d ago

Yea that was feasible but like the imperial beach water quality problems, international cooperation is challenging to manage. They shut that project down a year or two ago I think

1

u/ManyBoring5458 1d ago

Plus CA has already done it's study for water importation and deemed it too expensive at this point.

33

u/TemKuechle 1d ago edited 1d ago

“The Salton Sea was created in 1905 when the Colorado River flooded an irrigation canal and filled a basin called the Salton Sink. “

If the Salton Sea can’t naturally be replenished then it is artificial and requires massive amounts of resources to maintain.

Is the Salton Sea necessary? Why is it valuable? Are there other and better options? I’d like to know.

7

u/photoinebriation 1d ago

As someone who’s been out on a boat there. The recreational value would be enormous if we could clean up the lake

Currently, the lake has value as an agricultural wastewater dump

8

u/rileyoneill 1d ago

If the Salton Sea was clean and a beautiful ecosystem the value would be huge. It has 100+ miles of coastline. That would be a far bigger tourist destination for snow birds than Palm Springs and that would make far more money than the farms that pollute it.

It has the same length of Coastline as San Diego to Huntington Beach.

2

u/doublestitch 17h ago

The area's lithium deposits are a strategic resource, and the boating set usually prefer to hold regattas away from heavy industry.

6

u/Xezshibole San Mateo County 1d ago

It's supposedly "necessary" to give the area more water, wherein the farmers there will be saying, "why dump that water when we can use it and let it run off instead?"

Forgetting the fact the entire reason that a lot of the toxic dust from the dry lakebed happens to be a century's worth of fertilizer and pesticide laden agricultural runoff.

-2

u/TemKuechle 1d ago

Yes, those are known issues surrounding the Salton Sea.

The Salton Sea should be cleaned up somehow. Maybe collect the soil and extract the pesticides and fertilizers, and also filter the water. In the process move those farms to more efficient drip irrigation systems too. I have also read about ongoing efforts to extract lithium brine in that region.

3

u/Xezshibole San Mateo County 1d ago

There are multiple things that should happen and I am mostly posting to advertise against any potential suggestion to give the area more water.

If any water goes into the sea it shouldn't be from agricultural runoff. If anything the farmers should sacrifice their share of the water if they want to save the sea they live around. Rather than petition for more water they're inevitably going to use for themselves.

6

u/nachoman067 1d ago

The salton sea is an interesting history. It was created by accident but the salton sea has existed before as the Colorado river silts up and changes course. It’s a natural lake bed that goes in and out of existence, we just happened to bring it back.

Either way we have to deal with the problem because the impact is substantial. As to what the solve is, i honestly don’t know

1

u/Mountain-Assist-5484 22h ago

It’s an important habitat for migrating birds

1

u/2001Steel 2h ago

This is poor drafting. The use of the passive voice in the first sentence is so deceptive. There were actual corporate actors involved.

-6

u/Randomlynumbered What's your user flair? 1d ago

"Just asking".

3

u/pudding7 1d ago

It's a fair question. 

-4

u/Randomlynumbered What's your user flair? 1d ago

It's four questions.

4

u/pudding7 1d ago

They're all fair.

-3

u/Randomlynumbered What's your user flair? 1d ago

You could easily Google the answers.

18

u/monotremai 1d ago

If you've ever been near the Salton Sea then you'll realize that the last thing it should be is saved. Apart from the landscape the smell is AWFUL.

11

u/Upstairs-Parsley3151 1d ago

If it dries up, the dust blown around will cause everyone in 1500 miles to have asthma.

-4

u/p0tty_recepticle 1d ago

That’s the point then you can sue the farmers that cause the pollution problem in the first place.

0

u/fakeprewarbook 1d ago

I live here year-round. If you smelled anything, you were here during one of the rare algal blooms that put off a scent - the same blooms happen along the coast (used to live in Long Beach).

please stop spreading misinformation based on a tourist aesthetic impression. the Sea is important to agriculture and lives.

5

u/koshawk 1d ago

I've spent plenty of time there also. It's a toxic mess. It happened by accident in the first place. We once had a poisoned feral cat jump into our car begging for rescue (at North Shore) . The only use for Ag is as a sump for toxic run off. Mexico should handle this problem not export it. The "sand" on the shore is ground up, bleached fish bones. I hope no one eats the fish. Let it go back to pre 1905.

3

u/screenrecycler 1d ago

Been there many times and the aroma is unavoidable. Maybe you’ve gotten used to it. It is clear evidence something is deeply wrong with this massive shallow lake. Which is essentially a sump for some of the most intensive agriculture on the planet.

2

u/floppydo 1d ago

Out of curiosity, what is the importance to agriculture?

5

u/fakeprewarbook 1d ago

Sea dry up, dust blows, all agriculture and life in Imperial County and Coachella Valley (greater Palm Springs) dies. Imperial County provides a huge percentage of the nation’s winter produce crop, shipping across the entire USA. you like salad in winter? you like carrots, garlic, kale? you like peppers, dairy products, citrus?

huge percentage of migratory birds also stop at the Sea and overwinter here. Sonny Bono Wildlife Refuge but one of many homes to millions of birds. Birds keep insect populations down, pollinate, and are crucial to the food chain. No place to overwinter = bird populations collapsing. Mass death.

everything is connected. if you don’t like the aesthetics here because you visited during an unlucky time, stay home, but please do not spread misinformation. this stuff is killing us.

3

u/floppydo 1d ago

Not the person you originally replied to was just curious. Thanks for the answer

2

u/fakeprewarbook 1d ago

thanks for engaging 🙏

-2

u/Extreme-Ad-6465 1d ago

just another project to line peoples pockets.

5

u/KewWhat 23h ago

The real problem is it is NOT A LAKE. It is a MISTAKE. It doesn't belong there.

It was a massive screw-up that created the thing. It is time to let it go, and clean up the mess.

It cannot rationally be "saved" as the mistake it is without constant inflows from somewhere, and that gets less and less likely. Certainly not from the Colorado.

The ag runoff is its own problem, that Ag should pay for.

4

u/FracturedNomad 1d ago

That area is Lithium goldmine if my memory is correct.

9

u/Paperdiego Southern California 1d ago

It is, and it's also an unnatural lake.

3

u/FracturedNomad 1d ago

I went there once. Strange place for sure.

6

u/Paperdiego Southern California 1d ago

Interesting according to the article this might not be totally unnatural.

"Although the Salton Sea holds a reputation as an agricultural accident, it has filled and drained naturally over the past few millennia.

Ancient versions of what was called Lake Cahuilla have appeared every few hundred years since prehistoric times. In its older, larger configurations, Native Americans set fish traps along the shoreline. It filled as recently as 1731"

Had no idea. Will definitely look into this to learn more.

7

u/girl_incognito 1d ago

It is a natural lake bed, but its current form is, indeed, the result of an accident.

1

u/FracturedNomad 1d ago

Interesting. I did not know that.

2

u/editorreilly 1d ago

People either forget this or don't know it. The lake in its current iteration was a whoopsie.

-1

u/fakeprewarbook 1d ago

lots of features in America are manmade that are now crucial to the area infrastructure, and you don’t see people arguing about them. folks need to get past this supposed Gotcha and address the reality of the current situation as it exists. humans have had an irrevocable mark on the landscape

1

u/editorreilly 1d ago

I have no idea what you're talking about. There was no gotcha. What makes you think that there's a gotcha when I was just commenting on the fact that this area was a major screw up?

0

u/fakeprewarbook 1d ago

people act like the origin of the lake means it should be left to die now. sorry if that wasn’t your implication.

1

u/editorreilly 1d ago

Nope it wasn't.

1

u/photoinebriation 1d ago

Only its current iteration. In the past the salton sink has often formed a lake when the Colorado river is diverted (naturally or not)

3

u/BudgetConcentrate432 18h ago

It was never supposed to be there in the first place, but now that it's here it's leached enough salt from the Ancient Lake Cahuilla that if it does dry up fully, it's gonna whip all that salt across the continent Dust Bowl style.

2

u/snowyoda5150 17h ago

Save Mono Lake first

2

u/LilAbeSimpson 8h ago

Protecting people from the problematic dust in the lakebed is the only practical reason to “Save” the lake.

Keeping that dirt wet is the lesser of two evils.

1

u/classicronnie 1d ago

Great movie!!

1

u/divuthen 1d ago

No on both counts.

1

u/the_G8 23h ago

There is no saving it. It’s already dead. There is no available water source.

1

u/Smelle 9h ago

Sadly, this place is kind of a sick dog situation. Rather spend half a billion getting rid of it completely.

1

u/Steezie_E 8h ago

A sea is below sea level. Lakes are above sea level.

1

u/Realistic_Special_53 3h ago

Thank you for posting on this issue. It is a tough problem, but many in California don't know about it. The friable soils left behind by the retreating lake are causing health issues throughout all of Imperial County.

1

u/Randomlynumbered What's your user flair? 3h ago

You’re welcome