Environmental Disaster: The Strange Story Of Salton Sea

The Salton Sea is quite a sight today. It is toxic and dying, and yet just a few decades ago it was being developed as a freshwater resort and was an ecological hotspot. It was created by accident in a major disaster in 1905.

The Salton Sea supported a rich ecosystem of hundreds of species of birds and other wildlife. It became a crucial link in the Pacific Flyway, a rich source of fish, and an important part of the Colorado River's delta. Today it may remind people of the Dead Sea, receding, dying, salty, below sea level, and was a resort destination (the Dead Sea still is).

Pre-History of The Salton Basin

Over the last hundred of thousands of years, the Colorado River would alternate between emptying into the Gulf of California and emptying into the basin where the Salton Sea is today. When it would empty into the basin a freshwater lake formed, but when the river switched back to the gulf, the lake would dry up and become desert.

• Lake: There Was Often A Lake Here As The Colorado Switched Direction

There is water makes left by these prehistoric lakes today. The most recent freshwater lake was Lake Cahuilla (or the Blake Sea) - it once covered an area of over 2,000 square miles - around 6 times the size of the Salton Sea.

• Last Lake: Lake Cahuilla

According to archaeological sites and radiocarbon dates, the lake was filled three to four times over the last 1300 years. When it was full, it attracted Native Americans to its shores where they would fish, and hunt birds and other animals coming to the lake. Today there are hundreds of these archaeological sites to be found along the ancient shores.

• Cahuilla: Have An Oral History Of A Lake Here

According to an oral history of the Cahuilla people, the last lake existed in the 17th century and dried up after 1700.

Creation of The Salton Sea

The present Salton Sea was created by a massive ecological disaster in the early 1900s. In 1900 construction was started to build irrigation canals to divert water from the Colorado River into the Salton Sink - then a dry lake bed. It worked and the Salton Sink became fertile and farmers were able to start planting crops.

• Created: In 1905

But the silted Colorado River silted up the Alamo Canal in just two years and engineers were unable to alleviate the blockages. And then in 1905 heavy rainfall coupled with snowmelt swelled the Colorado River into a raging torrent and it burst through its containment and flooded into the Alamo Canal.

Over the next two years, the entire volume of the Colorado poured into the Salton Sink. Over that time the basin filled and inundated the town of Salton and formed the present Salton Sea.

• Maintained: The Salton Sea is Maintained By Agricultural Runoff

Once the Colorado was redirected, instead of evaporating the Salton Sea was maintained mostly by the agricultural runoff from irrigation in the Imperial and Coachella valleys.

From Resort Destination and Ecological Hotspot to Disaster Zone

According to the Salton Sea website, it is the:

"Home of North America’s largest population of migratory waterfowl outside of the Everglades, the Sea provides vital nesting habitat for 2/3 of the bird species in the Continental US"

Today the Salton Sea is California's largest lake with a surface area of around 343 square miles. The average depth is 29 feet and its deepest point is 51 feet.

• Sea Elevation: It is 235 Feet Below Sea Level

But today it is in catastrophic decline. The lake is evaporating and it is receding as there is no longer enough water coming into the lake. By the 1990s the shores were littered with dead fish as the lake's salinity had risen to a level that was toxic for the fish.

Fertilizers from agricultural runoff have caused massive blooms of algae. Botulism spread among the dying tilapia and over a four-month period in 1996 14,000 birds are estimated to have died from eating these poisoned fish (including 10,000 pelicans).

By 1999 the lake was receding dramatically and as it has sunken it has become saltier than the ocean and is now 2 times saltier than the ocean.

• Salinity: Once Freshwater, now Twice As Salty As The Ocean

It has become a major ecological disaster and has a triple threat of ecological, economic, and human health risks. The health risks are from the exploded playa-created dust storms.

Now the once major Pacific Flyway Route for more than 400 species of birds is in jeopardy. It was termed a crown jewel of avian biodiversity. By 2017 birdwatchers reported that most American white pelicans, double-crested cormorants, and eared grebes had disappeared.

• Fish Populations: Collapsed

This is partly because of the collapse of the fish population. It was initially a freshwater lake and was stocked with tilapia, gulf croaker, orangemouth Corvina, and sargo. But by 2019 it was thought that over 97% of the formerly 100 million strong fish had gone. The water was just too saline.

Today it is a strange and interesting desolate place to visit but just reconsider going for a swim. While there explore the even stranger place of Slab City the "last free place on Earth."

Next: The Dead Sea Is A Breathtaking Sight, But It's Also Beneficial, Mentally And Physically