California Accepted Papers Paper:
Salton Sea
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
an inland lake with no outflow that appeared in 1905 due to an irrigation canal fed by the
Colorado River breaking. The lake formed within an ancient seabed that drained but left behind
salts which made the lake saline. The size and location made it a popular tourist attraction in the
1950s: an oasis in the middle of the desert. By the 1970s, a combination of rising salinity levels
and nutrients from farming runoff made the sea unattractive to tourists. A consistent shrinking of
the lake has exposed the lakebed (‘playa’) dust, which has been linked to air quality issues in
the region. Today, the Salton Sea continues to shrink but remains the last refuge for wildlife, like
endangered birds as they migrate through the Pacific Flyway; all of their other options for water
have dried up. The declining ecosystem and health risks in surrounding communities make this
a uniquely dangerous problem that should be a major priority for Southern California
policymakers. We propose a multi-pronged approach focused on building on current plans
supported by the state government and adding state-of-the-art biofuel research to improve
ecosystem health and increase ecosystem services.
