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There is a book called Salt Dreams about the history of water in the Southwestern US. One of the things it details is that the Salton Sea is something that has

There is a book called Salt Dreams about the history of water in the Southwestern US. One of the things it details is that the Salton Sea is something that has come and gone before. This time around, it is failing to evaporate and disappear due to run off from agricultural irrigation. Water interacting with otherwise arid landscapes is complicated. It can be simultaneously devastating and life giving. It is perhaps a thing humans need to get better at interacting with given the state of the climate.

hahaitsfunny 4y ago
anon291 4y ago
The Salton sea is shrinking.
- DoreenMichele 4y ago
  It began shrinking after 1999 when water use became more efficient. Without agricultural runoff, it should have disappeared decades ago.
  - mikestew 4y ago
    The Salton Sea shouldn't exist at all. Had arrogance not overtaken those thinking they'd bring irrigation to the desert, the Salton Sea would still be the bone-dry Salton Sink. But after the canal and headgate failure, et. al., and the Colorado River flowed into the Salton Sink for two years, now we go from Sink to Sea. (And to be fair, it wasn't all due to arrogance; several floods one after another didn't help.) In short, the Salton Sea was the result of what was probably one of the worst humanitarian and ecological disasters in California history.
    - DoreenMichele 4y ago
      The evidence is that this isn't the first time there was water there. Regardless of what contribution human activity made this time, the area has a long history of periodic flooding creating a temporary lake as evidenced by geological markers and Indigenous oral traditions.
      - mikestew 4y ago
        I considered adding "...under current ecological conditions", but I though it obvious that natural flooding cycles were not responsible for this incarnation of the Salton Sea. I guess not. There is a good documentary on the Salton Sea entitled The Miracle of the Salton Sea that has outstanding old film footage from the early days, and explains how the current incarnation came about, though the Wikipedia page probably gives the same, if less well-presented, information.
        DoreenMichele 4y ago
        My previous remarks about agricultural runoff already agree with your observation that this incarnation and its duration is substantially influenced by human activity. I will note a pet peeve of mine: humans are animals indigenous to this planet. We didn't fly in from another galaxy for the express purpose of fucking with it for funsies. Other animals shape their environment and alter the landscape. Alligators help create swamps and keep them alive. Beavers build dams. Etc. Not saying humans shouldn't be mindful of the consequences of their actions, but it's a tired trope that human activity is somehow fundamentally different from that of other animals.
        deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
        kyboren 4y ago
        Like all animals, we eat, fuck, and die, but humanity's ability to alter the landscape far exceeds that of alligators and beavers. Our combined and fantastically developed use of reason, tools, and written language have elevated humanity to a fundamentally different level. We're each of us now demigods and the world is our golden goose. Only humanity and celestial bodies can kill nearly all life on Earth. Only humanity can so dramatically raise atmospheric carbon dioxide PPM as we've done. Only humanity engineers earth and waterworks on hundred-km scales. Sure, it's our home planet, too and we have a right to be here and alter our environment to support our existence like every other animal does. But no other animal can fuck up the planet more than humans can and do. No other animal even comes close.
indus 4y ago
It had a thing called "Bombay Beach" .. LOL.
- subsubzero 4y ago
  I went there in 2020 to check it out(Salton Sea and Bombay beach). Its a place that is not talked about alot in California as its a huge man made natural catastrophe. Bombay beach was really eerie as there was all this infra there from a more prosperous time(signs with ladies in swimsuits being pulled by a boat and well dressed people drinking by the "sea"). Saw many dead fish and their skeletons littering the beach, along with rusting playground equipment. A small contingent of artists have taken up residence in the deserted town and one of them made a "sothebys real estate" bombay beach storefront which I thought was quite funny.
  - reaperducer 4y ago
    Its a place that is not talked about alot in California Maybe you mean "Northern California." In Southern California, it's very well known. I knew about it for decades, and I didn't even live in California at the time. a huge man made natural catastrophe. People on the internet like to call it a "man made" catastrophe. It wasn't. It was caused by flash flooding that overflowed the Colorado River. Yes, there was a minor irrigation canal between the two places, but nothing that was large enough to cause this catastrophe. Especially since, geologically speaking, the Salton Sea has existed, evaporated, existed, and evaporated over and over again before any humans even lived in the area. Humans later took advantage of the natural catastrophe to irrigate farms and build resorts, but that didn't cause the problems. I've been there dozens of times, and those beaches are made of millennia of fish bones, not just a hundred years' worth. It's a drying saline lake, and toxic dust blowing off of it is normal in a desert environment. People who live in the southwest have known that for centuries. It's even a plot point in a number of old cowboy books. There are hundreds of similar lakes in the surrounding desert. But since you can Google Salton Sea on the internet and someone made a video, people act like it's a one-off. If you're not a tourist, you know it's not.
    - 4y ago
samschooler 4y ago
So there is another book called Where the Water Goes. In that book the author talks about how if the Salton Sea does disappear the accumulation of dust, fertilizer and other less than great chemicals may be picked up by winds and significantly reduce air quality for the region. So we're between a rock and a hard place at this point.

hahaitsfunny 4y ago

anon291 4y ago

The Salton sea is shrinking.

DoreenMichele 4y ago
It began shrinking after 1999 when water use became more efficient. Without agricultural runoff, it should have disappeared decades ago.
- mikestew 4y ago
  The Salton Sea shouldn't exist at all. Had arrogance not overtaken those thinking they'd bring irrigation to the desert, the Salton Sea would still be the bone-dry Salton Sink. But after the canal and headgate failure, et. al., and the Colorado River flowed into the Salton Sink for two years, now we go from Sink to Sea. (And to be fair, it wasn't all due to arrogance; several floods one after another didn't help.) In short, the Salton Sea was the result of what was probably one of the worst humanitarian and ecological disasters in California history.
  - DoreenMichele 4y ago
    The evidence is that this isn't the first time there was water there. Regardless of what contribution human activity made this time, the area has a long history of periodic flooding creating a temporary lake as evidenced by geological markers and Indigenous oral traditions.
    - mikestew 4y ago
      I considered adding "...under current ecological conditions", but I though it obvious that natural flooding cycles were not responsible for this incarnation of the Salton Sea. I guess not. There is a good documentary on the Salton Sea entitled The Miracle of the Salton Sea that has outstanding old film footage from the early days, and explains how the current incarnation came about, though the Wikipedia page probably gives the same, if less well-presented, information.
      - DoreenMichele 4y ago
        My previous remarks about agricultural runoff already agree with your observation that this incarnation and its duration is substantially influenced by human activity. I will note a pet peeve of mine: humans are animals indigenous to this planet. We didn't fly in from another galaxy for the express purpose of fucking with it for funsies. Other animals shape their environment and alter the landscape. Alligators help create swamps and keep them alive. Beavers build dams. Etc. Not saying humans shouldn't be mindful of the consequences of their actions, but it's a tired trope that human activity is somehow fundamentally different from that of other animals.
        deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
        kyboren 4y ago
        Like all animals, we eat, fuck, and die, but humanity's ability to alter the landscape far exceeds that of alligators and beavers. Our combined and fantastically developed use of reason, tools, and written language have elevated humanity to a fundamentally different level. We're each of us now demigods and the world is our golden goose. Only humanity and celestial bodies can kill nearly all life on Earth. Only humanity can so dramatically raise atmospheric carbon dioxide PPM as we've done. Only humanity engineers earth and waterworks on hundred-km scales. Sure, it's our home planet, too and we have a right to be here and alter our environment to support our existence like every other animal does. But no other animal can fuck up the planet more than humans can and do. No other animal even comes close.

indus 4y ago

It had a thing called "Bombay Beach" .. LOL.

subsubzero 4y ago
I went there in 2020 to check it out(Salton Sea and Bombay beach). Its a place that is not talked about alot in California as its a huge man made natural catastrophe. Bombay beach was really eerie as there was all this infra there from a more prosperous time(signs with ladies in swimsuits being pulled by a boat and well dressed people drinking by the "sea"). Saw many dead fish and their skeletons littering the beach, along with rusting playground equipment. A small contingent of artists have taken up residence in the deserted town and one of them made a "sothebys real estate" bombay beach storefront which I thought was quite funny.
- reaperducer 4y ago
  Its a place that is not talked about alot in California Maybe you mean "Northern California." In Southern California, it's very well known. I knew about it for decades, and I didn't even live in California at the time. a huge man made natural catastrophe. People on the internet like to call it a "man made" catastrophe. It wasn't. It was caused by flash flooding that overflowed the Colorado River. Yes, there was a minor irrigation canal between the two places, but nothing that was large enough to cause this catastrophe. Especially since, geologically speaking, the Salton Sea has existed, evaporated, existed, and evaporated over and over again before any humans even lived in the area. Humans later took advantage of the natural catastrophe to irrigate farms and build resorts, but that didn't cause the problems. I've been there dozens of times, and those beaches are made of millennia of fish bones, not just a hundred years' worth. It's a drying saline lake, and toxic dust blowing off of it is normal in a desert environment. People who live in the southwest have known that for centuries. It's even a plot point in a number of old cowboy books. There are hundreds of similar lakes in the surrounding desert. But since you can Google Salton Sea on the internet and someone made a video, people act like it's a one-off. If you're not a tourist, you know it's not.
  - 4y ago

samschooler 4y ago

So there is another book called Where the Water Goes. In that book the author talks about how if the Salton Sea does disappear the accumulation of dust, fertilizer and other less than great chemicals may be picked up by winds and significantly reduce air quality for the region. So we're between a rock and a hard place at this point.