Salton Sea (# 0118)

For a good illustration of how much the Salton Sea is dropping, compare the harbor entry to this: www.flickr.com/photos/donbrr/5228689216

The Salton Sea is an accidental sea and changes in California water policies are reducing the agricultural flow that has kept it fairly full. The changes in policy have multiple major consequences. One is that the lake bed is fairly toxic, both naturally and from military/industrial abuse. As more of the lake bed gets exposed, there’s going to be clouds of dust that create severe breathing problems for nearby populations as well as odor and less severe breathing problems for populations as far away as LA.

A second major problem with the receding Salton Sea is that, due to the decrease in wetlands caused by developments throughout the West, the Salton Sea became a major food, water, and resting place for migrating birds. The loss of water is going to have a severe impact on bird migration patterns.