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<br />SALTON SEA <br /> <br />Located in the Mojave Desert about 40 miles <br />southeast of Palm Springs, the Salton Sea is <br />California's largest inland water body, While many <br />restoration projects involve trying to bring water <br />bodies closer to their natural state, the Salton Sea <br />is a manmade lake, and restoration efforts are <br />focused on trying to keep it alive rather than see <br />it return to its natural, desert condition. <br /> <br />Nearly everything about the Salton Sea seems <br />odd, It was created by mistake in 1905 when a <br />diversion structure just north of the Mexican <br />border failed and sent billions of gallons of <br />Colorado River water into a shallow topographic <br />depression known as the Salton Sink, By the time <br />the diversion structure was repaired in 1907, the <br />sink had filled to form the Salton Sea. The sea <br />lacks a natural outlet, but irrigation drainage <br />carried mainly by fhe New and Alamo rivers and <br />storm runoff have stabilized the sea at about 7.3 <br />million acre-feet. Because not all of the 1,3 million <br />acre.feet lost each year to evaporation is <br />replaced, the Salton Sea is slowly becoming more <br />saline, and is now abouf 25 percent saltier than <br />the Pacific Ocean, <br /> <br />Allhough the Salton Sea has been called by some <br />an "environmental disaster," it does provide critical <br />habitat for resident and migratory birds and offers <br /> <br />"-",<.' -:" <br />. >';-":-::::/:~'~ <br />?T)1t~~~-i>: -. - _ <br />;]t~~~' <br /> <br />some of the best sport fishing in California, The <br />only native fish in the Saiton Sea ecosystem is <br />fhe endangered desert pupfish, but a few intro- <br />duced salt water species such as the tilapia have <br />survived to establish themselves despite increas- <br />ing salinity and periodic die-offs. An estimated <br />7,6 million tilapia died on a single day in August <br />1999, a sign to some observers that the sea is <br />dying but merely an annual event according to <br />some long-time residents, <br /> <br />At current rates, evaporation gradually would <br />concentrate the salts and pollutants in the Salton <br />Sea such that no fish could live in it by 2020, The <br />shrinking shoreline would expose to the harsh <br />desert environment numerous contaminants, <br />including selenium, that could become airborne <br />and spread across southern California, <br /> <br />So a host of state, local, and federal agencies <br />are studying the Salton Sea, trying to develop a <br />plan to stabilize its salinity, A number of <br />alternatives have been studied since 1986, In <br />January 2000, the Interior Department released <br />a series of documents containing recommenda~ <br />tions for environmental restoration of the sea. <br />Costs for implementing the recommendations <br />have been estimated to range from $200 million <br />to $600 million, <br /> <br />-..... ~ <br /> <br />...~,.."....,~.. <br />. ;--;":/i,:~.+:t~-Jg _.' _ _ <br />'<t)(~'1il;r]f~t"l.~~.~ <br />>,-,-,,'_<""~->-c:-:' ..:..~,.-,?,:" _..' '":", - -'. " , <br /> <br />-' <br /> <br />