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> The California Energy Commission estimates the sea [Salton Sea] might produce 600k metric tons of lithium carbonate per year. > The land under the lake is a
by johnohara 4y ago
> The California Energy Commission estimates the sea [Salton Sea] might produce 600k metric tons of lithium carbonate per year.
> The land under the lake is a patchwork of ownership spread across three primary entities: the federal government – mostly the Bureau of Reclamation and the Bureau of Land Management, the Imperial Irrigation District (IID), and the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians.
Should be interesting over the next 10-20 years as battery production increases and efforts are made to secure reliable sources of lithium.
Hopefully, this results in an actual remediation of one of California's worst environmental disasters and not a repeat of the environmental problems caused by uranium mining on Navajo land in northeast AZ and northwest NM during the Cold War.
- exysle 4y agoEh, I bet we become cozy with North Korea instead[0]. [0]: https://thediplomat.com/2014/01/north-korea-may-have-two-thirds-of-worlds-rare-earths/ https://thediplomat.com/2014/01/north-korea-may-have-two-thi...
- throwawaylinux 4y agoWhen you say "we", do you mean China?
- labster 4y agoI’m not sure the drying of a man-made lake quite qualifies as an environmental disaster, though the smell certainly isn’t pleasant. But it’s definitely not the largest environmental in California. That would be the destruction of millions of acres of wetlands in the Central Valley from the dry and vanished Tulare Lake northward. Next is the desertifying low Sierra as forests are replaced by chaparral and grasslands somewhat permanently. Third is the desertification of the Owens Valley. Fourth is air pollution which continues to be quite deadly. Fifth is DDT, which is mostly gone but still poses a risk in offshore birds near an undersea dumping ground. Anyway Salton Sea doesn’t even crack the top five anthropogenic natural disasters in California.
- Rebelgecko 4y ago>Fourth is air pollution which continues to be quite deadly That's part of why the Salton Sea drying up would be so disastrous. For the last 100 years, as water as evaporated it's been refilled with runoff from agricultural waste, a nearby superfund site, and other locations that probably should become superfund sites. All that runoff brings fertilizer, pesticides, etc that just sit at the bottom forever... Until the shoreline recedes, the dusty playa blows off and all that nasty stuff goes back into the air. Even with the current state of the Salton Sea, childhood asthma rates are way higher than elsewhere in the state.
- lazide 4y agoEh, just wait until the giant pesticide laden sand storms start kicking up and blowing into LA.
- labster 4y agoGood luck getting a LAX-DAG pressure gradient strong enough to do that.
- lightedman 4y agoThe way weather is changing, you just might get to see that happen in about 10 years. If it does happen, expect it to occur during the winter time.
- labster 4y agoHow? You push the dust 10000 ft up over the San Jacinto range against the prevailing winds… somehow? You don’t even get a downslope enhancement because the Salton Sea is lower than the Pacific. Or somehow the wind curves through the San Gorgonio Pass and back around to Los Angeles? You and what pressure gradient? I’m a meteorologist, so if you know the dynamics here, please explain.
- kortilla 4y ago
- rcthompson 4y agoI'm not optimistic about the outcome of the US government deciding that a valuable resource is inconveniently located on Native American land.
- RajT88 4y agoHow many treaties with the Native Americans has the government has broken? Nevermind the number. It is "All of them". This is not bombastic or exaggeration, it is simple truth.
- kortilla 4y agoThat’s patently false. The reservations are still observed by the government. If all of them were broken the reservations would just be gone.
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoThey aren't allowed to control their mineral rights. Just one of many injustices these sovereign nations are subjected to.
- RajT88 4y agoThis assumes the reservations were the product of treaties. They aren't. The reservations were very one sided. Not a treaty! Prove me wrong. I welcome it.