Earlier this week I proposed seaflooding
The main concern: Do we know what would happen?
We do! Because we've done something similar: in the Salton Sea
Many ppl think this is bad: "We don't want a repeat of the Salton Sea!"
They have the story backwards:
Conversation
1st we have to understand: what do they fear?
The Salton Sea was dry
Humans flooded it
Now it's now toxic
Ppl who don't know much more assume the problem was the flooding
But it's not. It's the fact that we *stopped the water flow*
Here's the story:
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In the early 20th century, the Colorado River Basin was being harnessed: we built dams, canals & aqueducts to repurpose its waters.
Los Angeles
San Diego
Denver
Las Vegas
Salt Lake City
Phoenix
And many others can't survive without them
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In the early 1900s, a Colorado River canal broke and its flow was diverted for two years into the Salton Sea, which is 70m below sea level. That was enough to fill it with water.
And life started again
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Why "again"?
Because the Salton Sea has appeared and disappeared, on and off, for thousands of years.
The river carries so much sediment that it plugs its path to the sea, which diverts it to the Salton Sea. Until its water level grows enough to divert back to the ocean
GIF
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Every time the Colorado filled the Salton Sea, life came back: fish, birds, natives.
Every time it went back to the Gulf of California, the Salton Sea's salt concentration went through the roof before it dried up again, killing all local life
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The same story happened in the 1900s
The river flooded
Fish were reintroduced
They thrived
Birds came
People came
They enjoyed the lake
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But why didn't the lake dry up, if the canal was repaired in 2 years?
Because water kept flowing into the sea
Mainly from farmers in the Imperial Valley, who were allotted so much water from the Colorado River that they just flooded their land to irrigate
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This was useful: the Imperial Valley produces more than 2/3 of the winter fruits and vegetables consumed annually in the US!
But it was bad, because of runoff
Fertilizers leached into the sea
Algae & phytoplankton grew & consumed so much oxygen that they killed many fish
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In any case, this flooding could not last
As the US southwest develops, more ppl come
More thirsty cities appear
More land demands cultivation
They demand water
And so the Imperial Valley farmers had to stop flooding their fields, and instead carefully irrigate them
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No more runoff for the Salton Sea meant it started shrinking
As it shrunk, its salt concentration increased
At some point, it became so salty that fish started dying again
Birds stopped coming
Ppl abandoned it
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And it's only getting worse.
The dust from the exposed salty soil blows into local neighborhoods, causing asthma
The bad smell from rotten animal carcasses reaches LA. The complaints from its dwellers reach the governor's phone
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So this is why ppl say: "We flooded the Salton Sea, now it's toxic➡️flooding is bad"
What they miss is everything that happened in between!
When the sea was flooded, life *came back*!
The pbm with the Salton Sea is not that it was flooded. It's that it's not anymore!
(& runoff)
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Flooding it again with saltwater would restore its life:
1. The lake is *saltier* than the ocean. Adding sea water would reduce its salinity
2. Since the lake is below sea level, flooding it would generate electricity
3. Which could be used to desalinate water for ppl & fields
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4. A similar lake exists on the Mexican side, Laguna Seca. It could also be flooded
5. More water would evaporate, raining on the Colorado basin. More freshwater for everybody
6. We could also pump out saltier water if we wanted to keep the lake less salty. Or harvest its salts
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7. This would not cause algae blooms anymore, which came from fertilizer & pesticide runoffs
8. The salty dust would be covered by water. Local asthma would likely go down
9. This would slightly reduce sea levels and slow down their rise
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The Salton Sea could be leading the world in seaflooding. The Army Corps is reviewing a dozen projects to make this happen
Let's support it!
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I go into much more detail in this week's premium article, where I also explore other potential seaflooding options.
unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/seaflooding-
Also, has an insightful Twitter & Youtube account on this topic, if you want to know more. I took many insights from them!
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