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
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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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