（文/stephanie parker）
California's largest inland lake, the Salton Sea, sits in the Valley of the Kings and Coachella Valleys. The lake is more than 50% more saline than the Pacific Ocean, but becomes saltier than water because it is largely evaporating. Once a hotspot for tourism and wildlife, the lake and its surroundings have largely become ghost towns.
But when people no longer visit, the evaporation of lakes still has an impact on both humans and animals. The prevalence of asthma there is unusually high and is thought to be caused by dust blown up by dry lake beds. At the same time, the number of fish and migratory birds is plummeting. So, what's going on in the Salton Sea and is there anything that can be done about it?
What is salton sea?
First, a little bit of a backstory. The Salton Lake has existed in many forms for thousands of years, and according to changes in water flow in the nearby Colorado River, it is located in the Salton Basin near the Mexican border, and geological evidence suggests that it alternates between freshwater, brackish water and almost dryness.
In 1905, the Colorado River flooded and the sea was in a state of drought, and due to human error, the embankment broke through and flooded the desert valley for two years. This creates a 400-square-mile (1,036-square-kilometer) inland lake that is larger than Lake Tahoe.
In 1920, locals decided to transfer agricultural irrigation runoff to the lake, making the lake live longer than it did on its own, because it was located in the desert, where temperatures often soared above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius).
However, this accidental lake has become a boon for wildlife. Birds flock to the area, and the area seems to flourish. In 1930, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service created the Salton Marine Wildlife Refuge to protect ducks, geese, and shorebirds attracted to the lake. Since its inception, millions of birds have been found along the coast, including 400 different species of birds.
The area continued to thrive in the 1940s and 1950s. The tourism industry grew so strong that developers gave it the name "Salton Riviera" for the construction of hotels, houses and yacht clubs. Salton Sea State Park opened in 1955 as the second largest state park in California. The California Fish and Prey Department raises saltwater fish in the lake, which thrive and house a large number of migratory birds.
But the good times did not last long, and by the 1970s, the Salton Riviera was in trouble.
More "Salton" than the sea
Because the lake is in a desert location, there has never been much rainfall. In addition, most of the surrounding activities are agricultural activities, so the lake has high pesticide and fertilizer runoff. And because the lake has no outlet, the poisoned water has nowhere to go.
This leads to a process known as eutrophication, which leads to an increase in algae and bacteria, known as dead zones. This perfect condition storm made the lake more salty. High salinity and eutrophication have led to the death of a large number of fish.
By 1990, the shores were littered with dead fish, with more than 150,000 small water birds dying in 1991, and by 1994, nearly 10,000 other fish-fed birds had died. More than 1,000 species of endangered brown pelicans have died on the list of the largest reported deaths of endangered species. In the summer of 1999, 8 million tilapia died in a single day.
Tourism in the Salton Sea has decreased, as has the lake water level, and ironically, the reason for the decrease in water level is partly due to evaporation and partly to a reduction in the same agricultural runoff.
Dead tilapia rot on the shores of the decaying Salton Sea. In 1999, 8 million tilapia died in the lake in one day, and a large number of fish died every year. David McNuy/Getty Pictures
Things get even scarier
Then in 2003, the situation became even more dire. Southern California's water district eventually signed the Quantitative Settlement Agreement (QSA), which had been negotiated for years. It calls for a significant portion of the Colorado River's water to be diverted to the Imperial Valley for agricultural irrigation before being transferred to the Coccella Valley and urban areas of San Diego for residential use.
To compensate for this water loss, the agreement specifies a 15-year water restoration plan for the Salton Sea. It also left some fallow land for the farmers of the Empire Valley, so the water they would have used for agriculture would flow to the Salton Sea. But the deal closed on December 31, 2017, so the lake had to continue to dry up.
However, even before the QSA transaction expired, Salton Hay ran into problems. In 2012, the smell of sulfur was emitted hundreds of miles from Southern California. It turned out that the smell came from rotting fish carcasses in the lake. In addition, the dry lakebed leaves a lot of mud that was once covered with water like a large beach.
Dr Jill Johnston, assistant professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California, said: "(Exposed dirt) has the potential to be blown away by the wind and increase the amount of dust in the air. "This dust can get into your lungs, adversely affecting respiratory health, cardiovascular health, and causing learning problems."
Johnston is currently working on a long-term research project with partner Dr. Shohreh Farzan, "Salton Sea and Child Health: Evaluating Respiratory Health and the Environment in the Valley of the Kings". The project tracked elementary school students near the Salton Sea to study the changes in their respiratory health due to exposure to particulate matter.
There is already evidence that the area is at high risk of asthma. But correlation is not causation, which is why Johnston's research is so important. "The aim is to answer the question of whether Salton sea dust affects the health of the community," she said. ”
A few years ago, dry mud was once found on land under the waters of the Salton Sea in California.
david mcnew / getty images for lumix
Promises, promises break
Over the years, there are a number of remedies that promise to solve the problems of the Salton Sea. Starting in March 2019, an editorial in the Los Angeles Times blamed the lack of urgency in the government on the location of the lake: the state is far from urban centers that policymakers often focus on. In addition, it is close to the Mexican border and assault points at the southern end of the San Andreas Fault.
However, more promises were kept. Parliament passed the Salton Reclamation Act, instructing the Minister of the Interior to prepare a feasibility study and submit it to Parliament by 1 January 2000. In 2003, then-Governor Gray Davis signed the Salton Sea Restoration Act and the Salton Sea Restoration Fund. But none of them are funded.
In the second half of 2007, Senator Barbara Boxers authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to spend up to $30 million on the Salton Sea project. But it wasn't until 2015 that the Obama administration set aside a measly $200,000 for another study before funding began.
By 2008, the California Legislative Analysis Office had refused to approve the state's $8.9 billion Salton Sea plan, which was developed and released in 2007. Later in 2008, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill aimed at speeding up the allocation of funds to restore the Salton Sea. But in the end, the $8.9 billion plan also failed.
It wasn't until January 2016 that the California legislature approved $80 million for the salton sea, the largest grant the state has ever made. In February, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said it would increase annual spending from $300,000 to $3 million. The announcements all followed a report by the Little Hoover Commission in California, which urged state officials to "take immediate action against the Salton Sea" because it was a "public health disaster."
However, this money is only a dime. Since then, California has released a 10-year Salton Sea plan that is expected to cost at least $383 million. The state is no longer focused on restoring the Salton Sea. Because it's too late. The plan now is to mitigate damage to habitats and nearby people, birds and other animals. But this will only happen if the program is fully funded. If the past is a harbinger of the future, then the prospects for the Salton Sea don't seem so bright.
Article source: UBM