When California's Greatest Treasure Became a National Disgrace: The Salton Sea - IT'S HISTORY
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 พ.ย. 2024
- Once one of the nation’s premier resorts, the Salton Sea welcomed millions of guests to its idyllic shores every single year. And yet today, it has been reduced to little more than a barren, toxic wasteland, growing saltier every year. Today, we will uncover the story of the Salton Sea, and if there is still hope to save it.
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Chapters:
00:59 - The History of the Salton Basin
02:07 - What is the Salton Sea?
03:15 - How did the Salton Sea form?
05:05 - The Flooding of the Salton Sea
07:24 - Why was the Salton Sea so popular with tourists?
07:53 - The Salton Sea in its prime
09:12 - What caused the Salton Sea’s downfall?
10:27 - The Salton Sea Today
13:23 - The Future of the Salton Sea
15:28 - The Salton Sea in the art world
IT’S HISTORY - Weekly tales of American Urban Decay as presented by your host Ryan Socash.
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» CREDIT
Scriptwriter - Imana Schoch
Editor - Karolina Szwata
Host - Ryan Socash
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» NOTICE
Some images may be used for illustrative purposes only - always reflecting the accurate time frame and content. Events of factual error / mispronounced word/spelling mistakes - retractions will be published in this section.
Hey everyone! I hope you enjoy the new video!!!
Ok I’m new here and love your content, but seriously PLEASE lower the volume of the It’s History intro! It’s WAY louder than anything else in ANY of your videos I’ve recently watched!
Bay sin not bass in
Yes, thank you - but it's not coming back IMHO - water from where??
@@stevengill1736 it has no place in this historic drought the region is experiencing. Wildlife will adapt.
Yeah im not surprised seeing how Nazi Pelosi helps run that shithole!
You can give them all the money in the world to fix it and they will just pocket the money!
As a native Californian, I think it quite a presumptuous stretch to think of the Salton Sea, even in its earlier, "nicer" days, as California's Greatest Treasure.
I was crewing a ch-53 in the Marines coming back from a long trip from Florida and when we got to the Salton sea the pilot said you want to see something cool and set the barometric altimeter to sea level then dove twords the lake. It was so cool to fly above the water theoretically below sea level.
Oorah!
Awesome story
@@shamokinthunderclap2166 Depends what you mean? One would be a USAF Boeing B-52 Bomber requesting permission to buzz the tower of USN aircraft carrier. They apparently had been in communication with the carrier group. They started out as a spect and grew as flew toward the port side of the ship. You could look over and literally look down on those inside the B-52. As it passed by it banked off into the horizon . I was in Utah standing on a mesa when I saw a B-52 flying low across the desert, as it approached I realized the we were at a higher elevation than the B-52. We were looking down on a B-52 going who knows where?
@@Mike-tg7dj I was a 1391 I got to fuel alot of craft fixed, rotator and hybrid . Hearing and seeing videos of the marvels of engineering built by the lowest bidder kind of get blood flowing like no stripe about to enter the mile high.
I have known of areas below sea level and even hiked through a few... but I loved your story. That a pilot would be rather giddy about it and fly low just to show you is a great story!
My friends and I camped overnight at the Salton Sea in '08. I will never forget what an eerie hellscape it was.
Yikes! Getting horror movie vibes!
Hello Peter
I've always wondered what the story is behind Loop Dr in Salton City. Such grand plans with roads and parcels all platted out. How much of the infrastructure is still functional?
Is there anything similar here in OR?
@@poofygoof if there is, they're likely gold rush era ghost towns, around the high deserts of NV/CA/OR/etc. which of course mostly had their highs and lows in an earlier era. There was one planned city some gajillionaire tried to put out in the desert somewhere and sold a bunch of land plots for development, but the people never came. The dirt streets are probably still visible today.
I went through there and it was eerie
My step dad had 2 retired Navy uncles who built their houses next to each other, on the outskirts of Bombay Beach. We spent many weekends there fishing, and boating in the early 70's. Dad bought the corner lot across from his uncles houses. Man mid summers were horrible 120+ days but great fishing for Corvina and Croaker fish. I had my deep sea pole with 6 hooks, I'd drag in 6 fish at a time. We'd have 300+ in hours to clean and cook, take home. Those few times we caught none, uncle had a deep freeze full of milk cartons loaded with fileted n clean fish to take home with us. Damnnnn those fish were tasty lol...
Around 1978 when it overflowed 2 blocks inland, washed out a lot of docks and bars at the waters edge. My parents lived there full time, so dad was collecting junk cars. They'd stack em at the shoreline, and cover em in dirt to build a make shift dike to hold back the sea. Didn't work too long. Eventually around 1980 my parents left , sold the place and never went back.....Now it's a ghetto with welfare people living there last I heard......The salt content would get high and kill off the fish. But it was good for cuts n scrapes, healed em fast ! Dad took our german shepard there to swim around because she was losing her hair. after her day romping in the sea, back home her skin and hair issues went away.
Awwwwe many fond memories back then, and the fun we had before it totally turned into a shit hole
That’s crazy the SS fixed up your pup!
Like the rest of Calif.
@@mochiebellina8190 exactly.
@@marissa3762 lol that could have a very different meaning
You can't fix stupid !!
I live approximately 100 miles northwest of the Salton Sea. Due to an unusual weather occurrence that happened less than ten years ago, a horrific smell fell across the area that I live. The smell lasted for a few days before finally being blown away. It was eventually determined that the smell had been blown in from the Salton Sea. After having to endure that horrific odor, I have absolutely no desire to go anywhere near the Salton Sea.
They've smelled the Salton Sea in LA after a lot of fish have died
I experienced it while working in Cabazon... The smell was horrible, must have been around 2010-2012
That "Smell" is most likely H2S gas(hydrogen sulfide) and can attack every system of a humans body long and Sort term, basically if you smell it? You are over exposed via OSHA PEL. My wife thought she was having heart problems when she was exposed and the dr diagnosed "stress".
I was out of town and not there to demand a blood gas test. once you are removed from the smell it is almost impossible to detect in the body long term. Ho Yes! the allies used this gas in WWI to kill Germans.
That is the smell of nature cleaning up a mess that should have NEVER been made in the first place. Humans built the current lake, and then they stocked it. Huge mistakes that people today are having to pay for.
@@foobarmaximus3506 what kinda fish lived in it?
It never ceases to amaze me that this happened within a generation or two.
Democrats...
Just like a pond with no entrance/exit, eventually every in it dies from lack of oxygen and nutrients.
Our family had some land in Salton City. Back in the late 50's, my Grampa bought two lots for $2K each and gave them to mom and dad as a gift. He said, "that land is going to be worth a lot more some day". . . Well, when my mom died, my narcissist sister got the land. It's now worthless, she can't sell it and still has to pay property taxes on it every year! HAHAHA - she got her Karma!
NANCY PELOSI SWAM IN IT AS A GIRL, TRAUMATIZING THE ECO SYSTEM !!!
When I was in high school a girlfriend and I hitchhiked to Salton Sea in the late 60's. It was a happening place back then. I drove through the area in 2003 when it was pitch black and eerie, and the bad smell of the area was overwhelming. Sad...but it also brings back precious memories...
@Risk Hassbro 😊
In the summer of 2015 I walked around the shoreline of the entire Salton Sea. In the 7 years since then, the shoreline has receded several hundred yards in most areas and as much as 1-mile in the southern end where the water is more shallow..
Sadly, based on their track-record, The State Of California has no interest in actually DOING anything to save Salton Sea.. Lots of headlines, new studies, and promises, but no actual action.
Newsome cares! I promise
💲💲💦
@@Gfysimpletons I hope you're kidding
@@kevineckelkamp of course I am.
With all the issues going on, do you think people would want their tax dollars going toward that?
I was one of those kids that frolicked in the salton sea in the 60's! Learned to ski and sail there, was one of our families favorite places to go.
You're part of a lucky group, I bet the transformation is a trip
Mom gave our lot in town to the county rather than pay taxes!
Gross.
So sad. I remember good fishing there from the early 60s.
wow
I've been kayaking on the Salton Sea. When I was done, my arms were covered in salt spots. Also, the beach is made of dead fish and barnacles. The sand is bones! The mud pots nearby are cool also!
How is that safe or legal
@@Stevie-J yes and no, it is a naturally occurring intermittent lake, humans just filled it up again, it dose it on its own sometimes too.
Theres no living fish
i was a truck driver in early 70’s,i would unload in L.A,i would go I-10 to Palm. Beach,go south on highway 11-15,to the i20,I remember the smell,every time I was amazed by the people who still lived there,the smell of rotten fish,sulfur &a lot more,i was stationed in SanDiego,while waiting my discharge in 1976🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
@@kevineckelkamp hurrdurr why is it not illegal to take a boat onto a lake we should control everyone at all times
Took me me a few times to realize you were saying “basin” at the beginning! I was thinking “bass in?” That sounds like great fishing
Is a bot reading the text? They made a few errors like that.
San Anders fault???
@@joshuahollahan5777
Yeah, it kind of took the feeling of real knowledge out of the whole presentation.
I have no idea what this is about. I keep hearing "bass in", stinging my ear.
He just missed saying it right a couple times but did later on. No biggie. Sometimes people seem so fussy and critical over the most minor things.
You miss one MAJOR problem in salvage the Salton Sea . It primary source of fresh water the Colorado River watershed has been experiencing a intense periods drought for over the last 20+ years . The effects are wide spread Colorado ski area going broke snow less winters, Hoover Dam and surrounding lakes at record low levels causing water and electrical power issue for Las Vegas and surrounding communities, etc... . So extra fresh water for the Salton sea is low on the list of priorities and complicates restoration planning
That's why the only other alternative is bringing ocean water which still is 40% less salty.
As you said, the watersheds of the Colorado are beyond the point of unnervingly dry. I live in Salt Lake City and have watched the precipitation dwindle for 44 years. The Great Salt Lake is nearly at an all time low. I remember the floods of '83 and long for spring rains like those. Every time it rains or snows I celebrate, no matter how minute the amount. Just today we got a bit of rain in the valleys and snow in the mountains. I don't just follow this as an avid skier, but as someone who's desperately clinging to the hope of a shift in weather patterns. The wildfires across the west every single summer get worse and worse as Lake Powell and Lake Mead continue to dwindle. To say it bums me out would be a gross understatement. I love this land and hate to see it so scorched. The Colorado doesn't even make it to the Gulf of California anymore. Between agriculture and drought we are screwed. OOF! Such a monumental bummer . . .
Indeed. Using freshwater for that would be a waste considering the situation. Sea water is the only solution if you ask me.
Not sure why they need a canal tho. Wont pipes and pumpes do? I guess a canal is cheaper in the long run (No need to run pumps) but cost way more upfront.
Moving water across a flat surface with pumps is rather cheap. Its only when you lift it like up the colorado mountains it gets expensive.
@@Stevie-J Agreed! A shitshow from day one.
@@MrDanisve It's below sea level, wouldn;t need pumps at least.
My moms side of the family lived in imperial county California since like 1949. they watched that lake die.mom remembers swimming and fishing in it. And having picnics with the family there. By the time I came along in 74 it was trashed. I remember as a child visiting my aunts house and her driving by the lake and it kept expanding. There's paved roads that go right off into the lake. It was so nasty even in the late 70s when I saw it last. It smelled awful and had weird light green foam on the edge of the water. Dead fish floating. Ugh so gross.I've seen pictures of it nowadays and its even worse. But that's what you get when a state lets so much toxic farming runoff go into a lake with no real flow system.
I had a similar experience in 2007. It was heart breaking to see such a beautiful lake destroyed.
Sad that this state allows everything to be destroyed, even the entire state itself.
We were but humble visitors in 2017 to the state of California and other states like Arizona on that summer's road trip. Our curiosity was quashed by the stench, dead fish, and post apocalyptic feeling that rings this body of water. As quirky and interesting as some of the art projects were in some of the towns, nothing can dress up this slow-moving disaster. The USSR created the disaster legacy of the Aral Sea, and the USA has the Salton Sea.
@@ryanotte6737 Sad how man is destroying every square inch.
I'm glad the toxic run off didn't get into the sea. Sad for the people who live there.
I went to the Salton Sea back in 2001 to go offroading, played around in the burnt out shells of an old el camino and a crushed old hippy bus. There's just so much decay let over from what once was, it was a fun little time just to go for a day but I feel for the people who still inhabit nearby areas. It's like Lancaster or Palmdale but even worse somehow lol
It’s spelled hippie. It’s not about anatomy.
@@christopherfanelli8821 You must be fun at parties.
A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in UK English, is a member of the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world.
Pretty much
@@christopherfanelli8821 and you lose.
@@christopherfanelli8821 did you understand what he was saying ? Yes ? Then shut up !
Ever since I saw a documentary on the Salton Sea about seven years ago, this place has just fascinated me.
The history, its wildlife, and its eventual demise.
Hopefully, the sea will be saved. If not, bye bye ritzy Palm Springs!
Great video.
You might like the song "Salton Sea" by Josh Rouse. It has a nice video that goes along with it as well. Hope you like it!
This place needs to be abandoned. It is not fit for human life, and the water is never going to be good or stable for long. It's a natural dump.
Think Aral Sea and Dead Sea - both drying out due to human cock-ups. The latter might eventually get a sea water connection but Aral is much too isolated for that.
It's unfortunate that our government will wait until a hundred people get killed before they do something to end the killing...it even goes back to a simple Stop Sign...when they know a intersection is dangerous but they wait until several people get run over before they put one up... If the Salton Sea dries up, thousands of people in the Imperial Valley will get sick from the dust coming from the Sea.. If the State would pump in water from the ocean it would save the Salton Sea, and reduce the salt levels until something else can be done!!!! Raise the water level in the Sea back to the 1900 level!!!!
Me too !!!! I feel the same it’s kind of a thing that pulls at my heart. I almost want to live there just so the sea isn’t lonely …
Thank you for creating this video detailing the expansive history of the Salton Sea and its rapid decline into a toxic natural disaster that requires swift intervention before it becomes a full-on toxic wasteland for a large area in Southern California.
You are Spot ON.. This is going to be a Major Problem Soon.. Along with the Whole So. West 38 million People W/O Water/Power. With the Demise of Lake Mead/Powell.. Some Serious Intervention needs to happen A. S. A. P. But so Far CRICKETS.. GOOD LUCK So. Westerners 🙏🙏
They should cover the Salton sea with solar panels to generate electricity, to keep water from evaporating to protect the environment.
Im a Brit but I worked in Brawley and lived in Yuma, AZ.
Happy memories.
The Salton Sea has lithium pods, enough to supply the entire United States with lithium for all the lithium batteries, and enough to supply 40% of the world in lithium! I spent a week there last year, April 2021, there’s so much amazing history there, so much to see and investigate. There were once so many birds there that Sonny Bono opened up a bird sanctuary on the southern part of the Salton Sea, that bird sanctuary is still there. The companies that have bought up the rights to the Lithium claim that they will bring water up from Mexico to continue to feed the Salton Sea after it is desalinated and they promised to give Mexico clean water for their people as well. I would love to see that happen in my lifetime.
California will never allow lithium mining. they will outsource their pollution creating batteries to a third world. As Californians do and say "Not in my backyard!"
I would love that too!
The LITHIUM for sure will be produced, as far as the promises to Mexico, sounds good, but I advise them to get it in writing. 🤔, as it is still not yet, a perfect world😉
The best history lesson for Salton Sea I have ever heard!
As someone who grew up in Salt Lake City, it boggles my mind that people would actually want to spend time and swim around in that salty a body of water. It *stinks*, literally. You don’t swim in it, sail on it, or fish in it; you look at it. And hold your nose.
Yes, I also thought this
Lol I moved to Salt Lake city in 05 from CA we never went to the lake and no one ever warned us about it. When family from CA drove up to visit us it was the first place they wanted to go so we were like eh why not we haven't been and omg it is not a place to go for a nice walk dead fish creepy rats with exploded heads what's that all about idk.
You can catch sea monkeys there.
Not untill it’s replenished bud
That’s exactly what I thought as a kid in 1964..to me it was the ugliest stinkiest place I’d been to..
Weird that you pronounce basin "bass-in" 3 out of four times then will correctly say "base'in". San Andreas is another one that you are throwing me off on.
I almost stopped watching until he started saying it correctly.
Thank you. I came here to say this.
@@DresdenDoll79 and there's no shame in not knowing how to pronounce a word you"ve never heard before. He should check for proper pronunciations in advance. Like he obviously never heard San Andreas spoken before, hard to believe but must be so. So he just assumes how he thinks it should said.
@@Abortionish bruh
Also he mispronounced "Coachella". Called it Cohella.
i was just in imperial
valley because i was visiting family there but its amazing how beautiful it is down there but you can for sure smell the salton from there
That plane at 0:38 isn't actually a wreck - it's an art installation that was at Burning Man a few years ago. It's plumbed with propane effects so that at night when it's lit it looks like a plane going down in flames.
I swear I was here when I was 4. I think it was during my 4th birthday. This would have been in 1967. What memory I have is a big lake and boats. I seem to remember paddle boats too. I have a memory of opening the sliding glass door of the hotel room and it was just desert as far as you can see. Also my grandparents and great grandparents had just bought around 1963 a house in Palm Springs in a subdivision that was all new then. My memory of that place was mostly from watching 8mm home movies. But since they were our there I really think it was the Salton Sea that we stayed at once.
If you find the 8mm movies, put it on TH-cam. There's very little "vintage" home movie footage of Salton Sea.
@@RJSerp Unfortunately those are long gone, I haven't seen those since I was about 16. I don't know who got those when they passed.
I know this story well, and you are missing some information. The annual flood of the Colorado came early that year and those responsible for the operation of the canal did not close off the intakes BEFORE the flood waters arrived. the flood pushed through the still open gates. This one failure led to the wash out of the entire intake gate structure and then it was off to the races.
a bit off topic but related to the river...The Palo Verde Irrigation District has the second oldest water rites to Colorado river water. The Indians get their water allotment first. Then PVID everyone else, Coachella valley, Yuma MWD. Los Angles is now preparing to steal our water just as was done to another farming valley by Mr. Mulholland. so long ago. The desire/need for water by the masses of LA will eventually win out over a few farmers out in the middle of nowhere...
"Food grows where water flows."
Typical brother California gonna keep taking everyone's water
Same things happens in central TX. Cities really need to stop allowing development since they basically don't have any water.
Another great video! With the prospect of both geothermal power and lithium extraction from the Salton Sea perhaps there is a case to be made for clean industrial growth around the area coupled with a viable-long term plan to sustain the lake as a tourism hot spot. Especially with Salton City having 25,000+ vacant lots serviced and ready to go as a hub for economic activity... At least that would be my hope because I've been obsessed with this failed venture for decades!
We now have the knowledge to proceed growth. To extract lithium alone has been discussed and this alone would be financially viable. Flooding the depression again just for the sake of a lake however would be folly.
I like the way you think!
They most likely won’t allow lithium mines in the area and if they do, it’ll be purely to put money in politicians pockets. All current management plans have environmental mitigation strategies within them, showing that the state at this point at least, currently is taking into account the environmental importance of the sea. That can all change in the future though. However, due to air quality control standards, it currently would be very difficult to get a new pollutant-emitting industry in that specific county. they are within the 99th percentile (standard deviation, or in laymen’s terms they are extremely higher than the average) in PM2.5, PM10, and overall pollutant levels (data from CalEnviroScreen4.0), leaving the county population within the same high percentile spot when compared to all others in California for COPD, asthma, and other respiratory issues (via hospitalizations per 10,000)
Edit: however, there are plans and pushes to reduce the toxic dust via creation of riparian habitat zones (some near Bombay and NS), and even some to pump in water from the Pacific Ocean or via the Sea of Cortez!
No. There is no valid reason to waste good water on this dump hole. CA has plenty of lakes already. This lake is dead, and should be left that way.
@@foobarmaximus3506 sheesh guy! You really hate this sea. You’re on every comment 😂
Very well done documentary!! Seriously, great job covering every single base on this disaster!!
The Salton Sea is a nasty irrigation accident. It’s just a century old mud puddle that people tarted up for a few decades.
You are so correct. It was disaster from the beginning. It was stink pool 60 years ago when I first visited it .
@@generalporkchop1817 Yeah. I think that it failed as a destination because people remembered that there was a *real* ocean just over the mountains. I don't know how they managed to sell it to anyone, tbh.
@@jaex9617 Have to think and remember that back in those days of the "hay day" of the Salton Sea times were much, much different.
Geology shows the lake is intermittent, only appearing during a wet period. The climate is in the dry mode currently (no, not caused by global warming - it's been doing this for thousands of years). There were large lakes in the central valley in the early 1800's. these are gone as well. When the weather cycles back to a wet period, the Salton Sea will be refilled.
You're correct about the weather cycles, but the difference now is the amount of farming chemicals in the water. If it were only an issue of salt concentration, it would continue to be a natural issue that would sort itself out, but the dried out chemicals are going to pose issues that will need to be addressed at some point. Humans caused that problem, and now humans are going to need to fix it.
Intermittent lakes exist. The current global warming trend due to the alteration of the atmosphere also exists.
What!?!?! TWO PHENOMENA AT ONCE!?!?! Surely this is witchcraft and slander @@ryanotte6737 🙄
Another great video 📹 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 thanks for sharing keep up the good work 👍
One of the things that they didn't mention is that many of these abandoned/ Derelict Derelict buildings are occupied by the homeless. It collects the homeless just like Slab City.
Slab city was referenced quickly in the video. How far is it from The Salton Sea?
Such a good metaphor for California in general
Do you live here?
@@Marioscorneraquatics yeah
Agree.
@@SpecialSoldier109 check it out the Milwaukee gun enthusiast making up fantasy
My father used to live there. He left Colorado in 1985 and to the Salton Sea. He died there in 2000. My brother and I went to visit in about 1998 and stayed for a couple of days and returned to Colorado. We called the area by the Salton Sea, "Hell on Earth". Dirty, trash strung, HOT! I can only think the old man went back there remembering it back in the 50's / 60's. What a crappy place to see as the last thing before one leaves this planet !
I've been working on the subject of the Salton Sea for over 3 decades, and absolutely from every aspect, environmental, recreational and economic, a large sized modern canal that can actually support even crusie ships and more is the way to go, and this is true in every way for both Mexico and the US! My goal is to work on the federal government financing for this project. Fantastic video; thank you!
@Tom Pellow's Economics of Quality So yet again man will destroy ecosystems, and wildlife just so HE can have a canal, you don't care what habitation you destroy on the way, just as long as man gets what he wants. Or yet again are you going to give the wildlife a stylised area of what man calls nature,, that is more friendly to man than the wildlife.
No, and hell no! There is no valid reason for anyone to live in this region unless they are mining. This "lake" is not sustainable on any level. It's just a big ditch where nature occasionally dumps some flood water. To allow ANY water to flow into this region is a terrible waste of water that is needed elsewhere.
@@foobarmaximus3506 Its a salt water canal.
@LibtardsStillCantSilence Me21 All the toxic dust would render Los Angeles uninhabitable. (More than it already is lol)
I agree with this statement but only to a certain extent. The Salton Sea is a health concern due to the toxic environment from the exposed lakebed/shoreline. Agree an aqua Pipes or small canals, (two side by side in about 10-12-foot diameter or width) should be built from the Sea of Cortez to fill this lake back to full to submerge the toxicity. The other canal will lead back to the Sea of Cortez to run off the water as the lake becomes full to not only aid with flooding. Doing it this way will be cheaper and in the long run the lake will be replenished. THEN those greedy folks (Government offices, politicians, corporations, real-estate agents that want to turn the Salton Sea area into a desert oasis (again) can do so without ever running out of water. Making these two aqua pipes/canals will pay for itself over time. The same type of water system needs to be done in my region of the Great Salt Lake in Northern Utah. It's all about the money, though.
You haven't lived till you've been to Bombay Beach in August. It's just the thing if you want to know what hell is like without actually going there.
This is so true. I went in august 2016. Visited the tar pits too. It's an alien world out there, absolutely an incredible experience.
What about living here in the Valley? We have had 3 consecutive summers with days reaching 120 F
While employed in california conservation corps my crew had to camp at salt sea for 2 months we were planting 2000 trees in coachella desert after a wild fire destroyed all the plants
I the late 1960’s I used to go duck hunting at the Salto Sea. It was a nice duck hunting reservoirs. The snow geese and numerous breeds of ducks used to migrate into it in the late winter. A wonderful wildlife hunting area.
I flew over this recently. So beautiful... The dust cloud was pretty extreme tho.
I live in the Salton Sea area, I learn more and more of the seas history, I wish I could figure out how to put water back in it
Thanks for this video, it gives a bit of perspective as to what the Salton Sea is about, I hope they can formulate and act upon a plan that can save the sea and the surrounding populations.
This has been going on for DECADES. They noticed this back in the 1960s and they haven't done anything since!
This will not be resolved within anyone's lifespan even if they started "reclamation" now.
California is almost beyond saving with the politicians they have in power. They've wasted probably over $10 billion trying to build railway systems between SF and LA.
@@AvengerII It does seem odd that they would waste $10 billion on a railway project of unknown benefit versus restoring the sea which would have economic, health and ecological gains, especially California which apparently has a bigger GDP than the Russian federation
@@stevehill4615 Billions wasted on a useless wall could have been used to help build desalination facilities all along the West Coast.
Oh, the stories I could tell of Bombay Beach...65 years of Family history! I will say it WAS an amazing place to grow up back in the day and after swimming in it my whole life, I DON'T have a third eye on my forehead! You can adapt to anything eventually, even Hell.
Parents were hippies? ~ 3rd eye on forehead ☺️🤣😅😅🤪
Could you say that fault line in California once more for me? It gave me a grin.
Um he means well idk why such major mispronuncians ocurr ~
California took away the marshes along the coast that were the birds habitat but then Salton Sea could be their new home...but now this
Salton Sea was an interesting place to circumnavigate by car in the 1970s. Stopping at Indio for a date shake and candy was always fun. It’s interesting to see the ancient water line high above the current lakebed as well as the occasional rock fish trap.
PS - It was never a national treasure although perhaps lithium mining and the existing geothermal power plants will make it useful
PS2 - It was a Real Estate scam at best, mirage in desert.
Your god damn right.
You said it…..real estate scam. I was told it would be the next Palm Springs. Like did no one ever think why would you even need two Palm Springs?
My father-in-law operated a boat dock on the sea back in the sixties... he said that the fishing was awesome back in those days.
And now it's about to have a renaissance as the largest lithium deposit in the continental US. Hopefully it revitalizes the area.
Went there with family in 1966 when I was 14. It was fantastic!
Considering that this lake has always been temporary, its formed and dried up again and again and again over the centuries then wont the migratory birds be just fine? It would be safe to assume that the migratory birds migration pattern has changed over an over again in tune with the forming and drying of the lake. Yea the wetlands could be a problem but at the same time... again... the lake forms and dries over and over again. So would have the wetlands.
Really, this is a temporary feature. Perhaps its just better to let it dry again as it has many times before.
Is it really a good idea to purposefully flood the place with the sea with a canal? Would it not be better just to accept the fact that this lake is only a temporary feature?
California is gonna California... I say that as a Californian
the materials dissolved in the water, originally at tolerable concentrations, are a major hazard if it dries out
it may have been a desert many times, but it is a toxic desert
Yes. It is not a sustainable "lake". It's just one of nature's flood ponds. No one should try to make it something else. And no one needs to live here unless they are mining.
@@illdeletethismusic Tough. It is toxic because people tried to farm in a region that is not sustainable. That's where the toxic chemicals came from, and tough shit! It will eventually dry out and blow away. Plant some trees and let it go at that.
@@foobarmaximus3506 you can"t plant trees in a desert formed from a toxic lake drying out.
Regardless of how the situation came about, the situation now is that it drying out will create a toxic desert, with storms carrying dust from there over a wide region.
Letting it dry out because it wouldn"t be in this situation had it not flooded a century ago won"t turn back the clock to get it unflooded and unfarmed.
I would've redone the intro when ya said "bass-in" lol it mad me chuckle a bit. Hope the comment sections didn't shred ya for it. Great video
With places such as Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Kings Range, and Monterrey, the Salton Sea was NEVER California’s greatest treasure.
I was there 2 summer in a friend's parents RV playing cards in the mid 60's getting sea sick when they went out to fish... thank god. It was hot and polluted so now I had an excuse not to go out in that muck looking for fish. My parents let me go!, my parents, school teachers, were stupid about hazardous substances, spraying DDT right next to me to destroy one potato bug when I was 4.! They thought chemicals were miracles! As we breathed that! Incredible! I have an amazing number of rare autoimmune diseases but still kicking... maybe I just got pickled
I lived in Bombay Beach for a few months in 2009. Stayed with some long time friends. I has a good time while I was there.
In other words, like everywhere else in California over the last 50 years, it has been ruined.
For the last fifty years no funds ever went to any project they were taxed for.They went into politician's pockets, and Pelosi is the head of that ilk. Getty, Pelosi, Newsome, Brown, ,four families that should be ostracized and exiled out of CA and then booted out of the USA to Gitmo. They aren't the only ones, but would be a start.
Muy buena historia gracias por la información 👍
Me and my dad went there in the mid 80s to fish. Sadly to say it was a ghost town then. Even sadder, when I was releasing a caught fish, a man asked if he could have it and any others that we caught. We gave him a few more and noticed that he had a family sitting in front of a vacant store. Now knowing about the toxin in the water and the fish....
better than starving
This makes me want to go visit the place.
Why aren't they harvesting the salt, fertilizer and other chemicals that have been left behind? There is an entire industry dedicated to separating chemicals into usable materials. So the technology is out there. The refined waste could pay for the cleanup. If they manage to show a profit, it could go for other cleanup projects. Like maybe figure out how to clean up Hinkley just north of Salton.
There are plans to mine for lithium and geothermal power on the Salton Sea. I was kind of surprised this wasn't mentioned as it might provide some economic incentive to desalinate the lake!
Damn it, got to this party too late! I come up with good ideas all the time. I just don't know how to actualize them.
Im sitting on a couple unrealized ideas on how solve a few problems at the grocery store. If anyone knows an interested investor? One idea fixes something that annoys every person that buys produce. The other is a sanitation idea to keep from cross contaminating purchases.
Toxic toxic toxic
My grandparents had a cottage at the Salton Sea. I never went but my dad says he spent many of Summers hanging out on the water
I grew up in La Quinta CA. I remember when all the fish died. We could smell it all summer long for years after that.
My uncle, Amos Wickware, was the Superintendent of the Imperial Irrigation District during much of the ruination of the Salton Sea. :(
Hard to believe that a lake that basically appeared out of nowhere, (as the result of natural forces that could not be even remotely considered reliable, much less permanent),
hard to believe anyone would seriously consider it for development as any kind of long-term 'destination'. This wasn't Lake Mead, after all. No Hoover Dam to back it up.
Greedy people thought they could make money farming and building lakeside resorts. It's stupid to think this place will ever be more than an occasional flood dump.
Wasn't it made by man? I thought it was
@@howardmurphy2841 Ah, nuts, this reply got too wordy as usual, but I think I've got the facts straight.
It's a little muddy, (haha), but I think what happened at first was a natural but very rare occurrence of a river (Colorado?) breaking it's bank and flooding an area, and that hadn't happened for hundreds of years.
Then, I think engineers and such tried to figure a way to 'fix' this or that, and this went back and forth until it looked like they may have a stable lake. So again, I think a natural action started things off, and men noodled with this and that, sometimes successfully, sometimes not.
Anyway, end result, they KNEW they had a new lake, and they knew they HADN'T had one only 10 years before.
So, did it make sense to do all that land development for resorts and stuff, when they really had no clue what the longer term result might be? That's what I was thinking when I made my first comment.
Have a great day!
@@abcde_fz thanks 4 the info, have a great day also
Grand Theft Auto V did such a great job recreating the feel of this area. Watching these videos it makes me feel like I’ve been driving around the area for years now.
California also needs more water in general, so they could divert SOME of that water they plan to take from other states to the lake and then build a canal to the ocean. Then they could do permaculture methods and reforest to retain the water and ease the drought by having forests that release precipitation that creates a rain cycle. Trees also shade the environment. It could work but the scale is huge, but with enough funding and workers, I could see it being done in 8 years.
No. This region needs to be left alone. No one should live there.
Except all of the Western states are in a state of severe drought (from the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean), so they would have to create a water pipeline system from atleast the midwest.
@@sngray11 Yes I know it's a HUGE PROJECT, but there is indeed a solution. It just takes lots of money and manpower. And I do think Washington could help as the Columbia never really lowers that much.
The fact that you think its ok to take anything from other states and give it to Commiefornia is troubling
@@ChemicalU235 America is America. Don't let snobs steal our country by letting them own any state.
It initially dried up for a reason. It used to be part of the California Gulf, cut off from the sea by an earthquake and then dried up into a desert. Now with toxic dust!
I live 25 miles form the Salton Sea. Seriously this needs to be addressed. The best solution, although costly would be canal large enough for container and cruise ships. Dredge a port and PROFIT. Imagine a resort destination that also has services industry.
Again what? The canal that was mentioned wasn't for that purpose, but to add sea water.
@@alainarchambault2331 there is a plan to build a canal large enough for ships, but it's very very far down the list. Other projects have a much greater, while still slim chance of coming to fruition.
@@RobertLeclercq Should just settle for resupply first. A ship-wide canal is ridiculous.
Profit how? LA has the best habour on the West Coast, it's fitted into the rail and road networks and it's natural; no expensive dredging required. Cruise ships aren't going to center themselves around the Salton Sea either no matter how much you develop the area for tourism. That's not how the cruise industry works.
@@anentiresleeveoforeos2087 Exactly, a canal as only needed to provide water to relieve the evaporation. The Salton Sea basin isn't all that deep to begin with.
My great grandparents had a house at "the sea" idk when the sold it but went for the winters. I remember them talking about it all the time
Supposedly, you can get a great deal on a house by the Salton Sea, or at least build one for cheap. Back in the 50s and 60s, when the place was a popular vacation spot, developers divided some of the surrounding land into lots and installed fresh water and sewage hook ups that went unused for a long time, I assume because the stench became unbearable. That being the case, it's probably cheap (at least for California) to build or buy a home there. You just have to put up with the smell and increased incidences of cancer from breathing the air. Or better yet, just don't open your windows.
Awesome video my friend. I love everything history.
Is it basin or bassin?
North Shore Resorts, lot of fun back in the early 70's.
That place looks like a super fund site for the EPA. Shut it all down!
The (Val Kilmer) movie Salton Sea was always one of my favs. Thx 4 the history!
The Salton Sea is still a beautiful place, I just wish the state of CA and the federal government would come together and finally solve its water problem with a pipeline between it and the sea of Cortez. It could become a boomtown of housing and opportunity all over again, and especially in an area where wildfire isn’t common.
Wouldn't a boomtown of housing and people just add to the already diminishing fresh water shortage? Seems any plan that includes the advance of humans is doomed to cause more problems. I think the Federal government would get on board if the whole area would be a national nature reserve excluding residential homes. I know CA wouldn't like this as they need more residents for tax income but there still would be tourism
@@indykurt a lot of the area surrounding the sea is already preserved as state and national park land, such as the Sonny Bono wildlife preserve, but much of the wildlife is dying off and/or no longer stopping at the sea along the Pacific flyway for migratory birds, because as the sea dries up, the salinity has reached levels too high for even the tilapia, which for years have tolerated the increasing salinity, to live. The increasingly exposed seabed is releasing toxic dust, resulting in Imperial county having some of the highest rates of respiratory ailments in all of CA. Fresh water’s going to be an increasingly pressing problem for the entire state, and so sources like desalination will become more and more necessary. The Salton Sea was already a big draw in the ‘50s and ‘60s, so it’s not really a new concept… indeed, whole towns were laid out around the sea, with infrastructure like water pipes and power brought to the zoned lots. They just never came to fruition. Too many floods occurred, with the sea having no reliable outlet. The pipeline proposal between Cortez and Salton could help to fix that, by pumping out excess water to keep the level more predictable and workable. California’s inward migration may slow at times, but it’s never stopped, like Florida, so it’s not really a proposal for some theoretical need for more housing, we already need it. The natural resources in the area, namely geothermal energy and lithium, as well as the Southern Pacific RR going through the area, make the area a natural one for industry as well as tourism if the sea is fixed. I’m honestly kinda surprised it hasn’t happened already.
The problem w the Sea of Cortez idea isn’t so much of an issue with state and federal governments working together more so an issue of our federal government not able to reach an agreement with Mexico regarding the aqueduct needed for that to happen. However, it is still being petitioned by the Salton Sea Coalition, and has received thousands of signatures!
@@matthewserrao2926 Yes, totally. In years past it seemed like relations were more conducive to that international crossing of any proposed pipeline, which seems odd to me, but you’re right.
That Kerry Morrison of Ecomedia Compass and (former?) mayor of Salton City I think it is, or Desert Shores, what a powerhouse advocate for the people in the area and the sea itself. So many people down there would be easy to steamroll right over due to financial status, health conditions and ability to navigate the labyrinthine agencies involved, but he’s been a persistent voice to be reckoned with, IMHO. I’ve never met him, but I admire him.
It’s a really special place down there. I’m partial to Bombay Beach myself, but the people and the setting are just fantastic. Growing up in MA, we used to go to the beach a lot. When I was in the desert in Palm Desert for awhile, I wanted to go down there, and we drove my ‘65 Bug down and I could smell the sea before I saw it… that marshy, salt water smell, and then to see it… a sea so big you can’t see the other side in places. And how friendly the folks of BB were when we stopped in at the Ski Inn- wanting to know all about us and what brought us to town. It really left a mark on me. I hope nothing but the best for them.
No Thank you! Keep Mexico out of this.
As a kid, I remember one year we were on vacation in California, a real estate salesman convinced my Dad to take a tour of Salton Sea and the area, and tried to convince him to buy a resort condo. I can still remember my Dad telling the guy the places was doomed to fail, there's no future in owning anything out here. That, was one of the few times he had any common sense.
Those celebrities that went there back in the day it’s strange that they never got in the water they only got in the swimming pools that’s because they were privately informed about the water
Ryan's speech method is suited to fluffy Hollywood subjects but hard to keep up with on an interesting subject😆
Is this the future of las Vegas?
We would drive from San Diego to the Salton sea and spend weekends there in the early sixties. Have observed the gradual decline over the years. A ecological disaster to say the least.😢
Very interesting 💕👵
Plus the history of the military… many experiments were done there too! 🥺planes, boats sunk in it… Slab City is interesting… farmers don’t want the Sea of Cortez going though either because it will destroy their soil…. Don’t visit during the summer…
I spent many vacations with my parents, down there. Dean Martin, a friend of my Dad's, told us about The North Shore. Mom and Dad became members of the Yacht Club!
Wait, there's a little town in GTA V that's in the desert by a lake; it's all rundown and it has a couple of abandoned motels and other buildings by the lake. Is that place based on this? I know San Andreas is supposed to be California, but I didn't know a place similar to that actually existed. That's crazy.
Yes Sandy Shores is based on this area.
@@Wsttp400 That's awesome! Thx! 🙂
Yes, Sandy Shores is based on two settlements on the Salton Sea shore Desert Shores and Salton Sea City. Ive been to there and also live in the southern part of the county 1 hour away from the salton sea. Roaming around the area in GTA is like doing the same here at home but with less civilization.
@@Praesidio Wooow that's crazy. Must be kind of cool to see areas you actually know represented in games and such :)
@@camithewitch5265 a bit yeah, except they make it look like a wasteland full of meth heads. Though that’s only in the north. In the south center it is much more clean and normal much like a typical American town but with the largest Mexican percentage in the US.
Cool vid, would have benefitted greatly from a little animation when describing the sea’s origins tho
It never was a treasure. It was always a sewage collection reservoir. It was just a matter of time.
It's a real wonder, I have passed by the Salton Sea several times.
California also has salt and air pollution problems with Owens Lake and Mono Lake.
They are working on that now, especially Owen's Lake. The current long term drought is the biggest problem.
They are restoring Owens lake, mono lake was saved from LA sucking it dry like Owens.
Amazing . I hope it recovers
Bass-in?
Good, I’m not the only one…
Good'ol farmers always helping us out
BAY-SIN, BASIN
💯. The way he says it, it sounds like he's going fishing for bass. 😂
I love your content man 👍
“San Anders” lol. It be San Andreas
Bassin bassin bassin! I'm just bassin ya.
How can California who claims to be such big environmental crusaders let this mess be right in their back yard ?
Exactly! Typical Kalifornia hypocrisy.
Because California has been run exclusively by democrats for 30 years
Californians are so vocal about the environment because California is a series of environmental disasters. Hard to keep quiet when you're living in it.
There’s a similar issue with Owen’s Lake, but the hazard is being managed by the LADWP. Re-flooding the Salton Sea also poses a risk of triggering the San Andreas fault.
Got to stay overnight in a mobile home and tour the lake / fish from a boat in the mid 70's. Lake was drying up some and salt was left behind where sea receded. Sea was dying and most people had moved but some still fished there. The smell was there but bearable.
The lake could be restored and become a valuable place for second homes. For less than 1/4 what Gov. Nonsense has spent on the LA-SF "High Speed rail To Nowhere", they could pipe in seawater from the gulf of California. The area could be the next Palm Springs-an asset instead of a toxic waste dump.
You do realize that CA voters voted for the high speed rail in 2008, right? The government of CA has no choice but to do it. As for what I observed as to why it has become expensive is a lot of counties stroked the fears of their local populace saying it was a money hole then go sue for what ever reason. They created and fulfilled their own fears and wasted hundreds of millions of dollars fighting in the courts. They even pat themselves on their backs for this just so they could win local elections.
Pump out all the toxic waste and excess salinity, prevent new agricultural run-off, and replenish the lake with sea water. Pumping in water isn't even that difficult from a technical perspective; that canal discussed in the video is a much bigger hassle. It's probably even economical to run the water through turbines to generate power seeing that the lake is a few hundred feet below sea level with only hills between it and the coast.
I'm a trucker and when I go deliver in Calexico, California from Brownsville, Texas I usually go up to Los Angles, CA and go up 111, to 78 to 86 and I run right by it. I've stopped several times but not much to see lol.
I worked there on the side of 111 at the mud pot that is moving and took out the rail line and highway. Very interesting area.
Cracklins
@@jrow84 yeah I never really went too far but I walked around. That's one of the only things i loved about living in San Diego, CA is that theres always stuff to do all year long. Now I live in Mexico and work the oil Fields in south Texas! Puro 956.
You forgot to mention why he sea is so salty...well @the turn of the last century there was what was called the salton sink that was being mined & transferred to inland salt company(s) by way of rail , but when the Colorado River overflowed for the last time in 1906 it flooded the lmperial Valley & filled the basin hence the name the'Salton Sea! That natural Salton sink is why the sea is so salty! The rest of your history has holes in it also, but not being a local yohcal you got most of the story right! Born & raised in Mecca along with most of the town's around the CV side of the sea, I'm a Desert Rat through & through.....Brad Watson. 72 years young & still spry!!😀
The Salton Sea is home to both the Coachella & Imperial Valley's....Go CV Arabs!!
Mecca Camels!!
Do one on the drying up of the great salt lake, they are struggling to keep it from drying up and it's way bigger and more essential and ancient than this