BY GREGOR M. YANEGA, ABIGAIL REYES, TIMOTHY J. BRADLEY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE OFFERS
A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY APPROACH
The Salton Sea
Initiative
18
threatened, and include recognizable groups such as egrets, herons, rails, terns, cranes, cormorants, grebes, gulls, and pelicans. Development has eliminated productive marshes from
the Colorado River delta, the Central Valley and the California coast. Thus the Salton Sea’s
presence has become increasingly vital over the last century for birds of the Pacific Flyway.
In the latter part of the 20th century, the Sea began to get more and more saline. Because of the inflow of irrigation water and evaporation from the Sea’s surface, the salinity of the Salton Sea has been steadily increasing since its creation. The current salinity
(about 50 parts per thousand) exceeds the salinity tolerance of most marine fish. Influx of
nutrients from irrigation runoff has caused eutrophication of the Sea and excess algal production. In addition, the Sea suffers occasional periods of poor oxygen distribution leading
to large-scale die-offs of the only remaining fish species, Tilapia. The combined effects of
fish die-offs, Sea level decline, and loss of recreational infrastructure have substantially
reduced the attractiveness of the Sea both for tourists and local residents.
While we may think the fish die offs mean the Salton Sea is not safe, the waters of the
Salton Sea have repeatedly been found to be safe for human contact, swimming, boating,
and fishing. A different human health hazard does, however, lurk in the continuing decline of the Sea. As the sea level dwindles, more salt flats (playas) are exposed to the desert
sun. On windy days the playas give rise to clouds of salty, alkaline dust that endanger the
health of hundreds of thousands of residents of the Coachella and Imperial valleys. Dust
blowing off of salt flats contains fine particles that can lodge in the lungs producing emphysema, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. As the Sea shrinks, these
salt flats present a huge public health problem. We’ve seen this problem before. East of the
Sierra Nevada, for example, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has spent 1.2
THIS PHOTO AND ABOVE: TIM BRADLEY
T
The Salton Sea is a large saline lake located in southern California in a geological depression (the Salton Sink) between
the Imperial and Coachella valleys. The
Salton Sink has been the site of saline and
freshwater lakes from time immemorial.
The Sea in its most recent configuration
was formed in 1905-06 when water escaped from the Colorado River, filling the
depression. Once formed, the Sea had a
salinity near that of seawater (35 parts
per thousand). Marine organisms were
introduced, establishing a thriving sport
fishery at the Sea.
At its heyday, the Salton Sea was a
very popular tourist destination. From the
1940s through the 1960s, tourism traffic
rose with a rising population in southern
California of city residents flocking to desert areas for recreation. The Sea was used
extensively for boating, fishing, swimming, speedboat racing, and many other
forms of recreation. Other seasonal activities such as camping, hiking, wildflower
viewing and birding brought additional
visitors. Six hundred thousand tourists
visited the Salton Sea State Park in 1961/62
alone. Residential and recreational communities grew on the western shore, including Salton City, Salton Sea Beach and
Desert Shores, while Desert Beach, North
Shore and Bombay Beach were established
on the eastern shore. These resort and residential areas hit a high point in the 1950s
and 1960s.
The Salton Sea is among the most important sites for bird migration in North
America. Many of the species found at the
Sea rely on it as either breeding habitat,
overwintering habitat, or migratory stopover sites, such that the health of many
bird species in Western North American
depends on the health of the Sea. Many
species that use the site are endangered or
The Salton Sea is critical habitat for fish-eating birds. Top: The New River is one
of three major sources of fresh water carrying irrigation runoff into the Sea.
DESERT REPORT MARCH 2014
The south end of the Sea is a prime site for geothermal energy
development. This geothermal plant exists side by side with
mudflats attracting a large flock of shorebirds.
ects to provide new wetlands and to expand habitat for birds and
mammals during the coming period of declining Sea levels. These
activities include the Species Conservation Habitat Project being
overseen by the California State Department of Water Resources,
which will produce saline ponds on the Sea’s south shore; wetland creation by the Martinez Cahuilla tribe at the mouth of the
Whitewater River on the north shore; and many acres of wetlands
being created by the Imperial Irrigation District on the Sea’s southeast shores. These efforts are designed to provide wildlife habitat
and to reduce possible dust creation from exposed playa as the Sea
shrinks in size.
Each of these opportunities for development and mitigation
provides a solution for one or some of the problems facing the
region. The challenges are complex, however, and simultaneous
and optimal solutions for salinity, eutrophic waters, selenium,
dust generation, energy production, economic development, social
justice, and endangered species protection require a complex and
coordinated effort engaging many disparate disciplines.
Yet these problems at the Salton Sea are but one example of
the myriad integrated, multidimensional problems facing our society. In many ways we are only now working out the adaptive
management tools needed to coordinate the varied and sometimes competing interests inherent in these complex problems.
These require simultaneous environmental, economic, social and
legal solutions. It is our belief that universities can play a central
and valuable role in this process. At the University of California,
Irvine, we conduct research and teaching in many disciplines that
could be brought to bear in addressing the challenges at the Sea,
including biology, engineering, energy management, regional
planning, public health, community engagement, law, anthropology, political science, and economics. Similar expertise and interest in the fate of the Sea exist at other universities in the region
such as UC Riverside, at California State University campuses in
San Bernardino and San Diego, and at private universities such as
the University of Redlands and San Diego University.
In 2013, the Provost of the University of California, Irvine, created the Salton Sea Initiative. The purpose of the Initiative is to
harness the research, teaching, and service resources of the campus to help address the multiple sustainability challenges faced
by the Salton Sea region. The Initiative has so far attracted the
interest of over twenty faculty members and their students offering expertise in engineering, biology, public health, economics,
real estate, regional planning, history, and law. Topics being investigated include: desalination, biological remediation, nutrient
removal, public health issues, economic development, land use,
and water allocation.
As UCI enters this decades-old regional planning process, we
hope to contribute in a meaningful way to the efforts being directed
by the Salton Sea Authority in partnership with federal, state and
county governments, water and irrigation districts, Native American tribes, non-governmental organizations, other community
groups, and the private sector. We see our role as participating in a
collaborative process of knowledge production in which the work
we do integrates and reflects the lived experience and expertise of
those closest to the crisis. Thus, rather than advocate any one particular path forward, we seek to use our campus strengths to provide
technical assistance through research expertise, to open up public
discourse, and to strengthen the capacity of relevant stakeholders
to engage the resources necessary to address these problems.
We view addressing the sustainability challenges at Salton
Sea as multi-faceted, long term, and critical to southern California’s future. We also believe that, as desertification and salinity
crises expand globally, the solutions pioneered at the Sea could inform actions of similarly situated communities across the globe.
To learn more about our current projects and get involved, please
visit http://sites.uci.edu/saltonsea.
Gregor Yanega and Timothy Bradley are the Academic Coordinator
and Director, respectively, of the UC Irvine Salton Sea Initiative. Abigail Reyes is the Director of the UC Irvine Sustainability Initiative.
TIM BRADLEY
TIM BRADLEY
billion dollars over the last two decades to reduce dust blowing off
of the dry Owens Lake bed.
If the Sea could be returned to its esthetically attractive state,
new tourism could provide a substantial economic boost for the
Imperial and Coachella valleys. An attractive, viable Sea also
would provide a substantial boost to land value in the area, as
seaside properties would become quite valuable as vacation and
retirement assets. Hotels, resorts and marinas serving tourists
would provide jobs and a diverse economic base for growth and
development in the region.
Others are exploring increasing geothermal energy development, expanding electricity generation through solar and wind
technologies, creating commercial-scale algal cultivation, constructing solar ponds, and exploiting desalination technologies.
Clearly, the possibility exists for the Salton Sea once again to provide enormous economic and environmental benefits to the region.
Currently, numerous agencies in the area are engaged in proj-
Shore properties have scenic views of the Sea.
DESERT REPORT MARCH 2014
19
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