The Salton Sea is a saline based lake located directly on the San Andreas Fault. The lake occupies the lowest elevations of the Salton Sink in the Colorado Desert of Riverside and Imperial Counties in Southern California. Like Death Valley, it is located below sea level. And like Death Valley or the Mojave Desert or Mono Lake or even the Great Salt Lake, it is a kind of place that I find sort of attractive, but for the life of me I don’t know why. I have never been there at all (had plenty of chances when I grew up in Southern California, except for maybe that two plus hour drive that no one in thier right mind ever would have wanted to make) and I have been to all of the other places I have mentioned.
My father took his family to Mono Lake, which is in Northern California and is a whole other ballgame of stink. Look up the place on your computer and marvel at what I saw when my dad (playing the nature explorer that he never was) lost his shoe when his foot sunk in stinky quicksand twenty feet near the shore. I have been to the Great Salt Lake and that place is also gross, smells horrible and might as well be placed on the moon. The Mojave Desert is etched permanently in my mind thanks to countless trips to Vegas. So even though I have never been to the Salton Sea, I have still managed to be obsessed with it. It is FAR weirder then any of the other locales I have brought up. But before I get carried away, here is a little history about the place:
The creation of the Salton Sea of today started in 1905, when heavy rainfall and snowmelt caused the Colorado River to swell and breach an Imperial Valley dike..oops! It took nearly two years to control the Colorado River’s flow into the formerly dry Salton Sink and stop the flooding. As the basin filled, the town of Salton, a Southern Pacific Railroad siding and Torres-Martinez Indian land were submerged. The sudden influx of water and the lack of any drainage from the basin resulted in the formation of the Salton Sea. The lake is huge. Imagine a gigantic almost empty pool, one that is almost drained and you have some idea of what this instant lake’s future could be.
After the 1920s, the Salton Sea developed into a tourist attraction, because of its water recreation, and waterfowl attracted to the area. The Salton Sea remains a major resource for migrating and wading birds. This was crucial due to the fact that it eventually became the only wetlands in the entire state of California. It has also had some success as a fishery in the past, with species such as mullet, corvina, sargo, and tilapia being introduced to the Sea from the 1930s to the 1950s. The sixties were Salton Sea’s heyday. During this time, the place was hopping. An instant city and resort was planned akin somewhat to nieghboring town Palm Springs. The Salton Sea has had some success as a resort area, with Salton City, Salton Sea Beach, and Desert Shores on the western shore and Desert Beach, North Shore, and Bombay Beach built on the eastern shore during these times. Today these places are like ghost towns engulfed in a stench and are surrounded by tons of burnt up shacks. Meth is popular down here apparently. At least the making of it is, hence explosions and no police around to patrol anyone who is left.
Around the end of the sixites the tone was set for the next decade, where everything about the Salton Sea went down the friggin toilet; increased salinity, pollution, and weather events have caused most of the residents to flee, sell thier property and get the hell out of there. These events also killed off most fish species other than the hardy tilapia. There are an estimated 10 million tilapia in the Salton Sea. No shit.
The lack of an outflow means that the Salton Sea is a system of accelerated change. Variations in agricultural runoff cause fluctuations in water level (and flooding of surrounding communities in the 1950s and 1960s), and the relatively high salinity of the inflow feeding the Sea has resulted in ever increasing salinity. By the 1960s it was apparent that the salinity of the Salton Sea was rising, jeopardizing some of the species in it. The Salton Sea currently has a salinity exceeding 4.0% w/v (saltier than seawater) and many species of fish are no longer able to survive in the Salton. It is believed that once the salinity surpasses 4.4% w/v, only the tilapia will survive. But that doesn’t stop the fish from having the interesting massive die-offs once in awhile, especially during the summer when the water gets too warm and there just isn’t enough oxygen for millions of fish to survive.
Imagine what a million dead fish must smell like in the summertime in the desert. Even better, fertilizer runoff, combined with the increasing salinity and the highly polluted water from the New River have resulted in large algal blooms and elevated bacteria levels. The New River, which flows upward from Mexico via Baja California, is considered to be the single most polluted river in America. It gets nicer and nicer all of the time. But wait: there is more!
The high level of bacteria resulting from fish die-offs are a major threat to the birds that visit the wetlands of the Salton Sea, and are thought to contribute to mortality and birth defects in the bird populations. Many governmental and grassroot efforts have arisen to find a solution for the pollution and salinity problems of the Sea, but no one seems to care too much about it. Most people don’t even know where it is or have even heard of it, but if you open any map of California, it is obviously clear that this biggest and most noticeable body of water in the entire state is this weird kidney shaped lake placed innocently in the very Southern part of the state somewhere in the middle of it. It is hard to miss.
Much of the current interest in the sea was spearheaded in the 1990s by the late Congressman Sonny Bono. Unfortunately he died in a skiing accident. His widow, Mary, was elected to fill his seat and has continued the fight, as has Representative Jerry Lewis of Redlands. The future of this weird place seems very unclear.
All I know is that this place has more then interested me. A weird almost dead lake that is enormous, and has a weird and interesting story that even involved the late Sonny Bono. Every picture I have ever seen of it is bizzare and spooky. Everything is abandoned and creepy.
So obviously the next question I always had was: who the hell would live in a place like this? Think about it: A accidental lake that stinks all of the time where the weather is beyond hot and seems inhospitable. What kind of weirdo would voluntarily live in a place like this?
I wanted to see some kind of movie or documentary about the Salton Sea. Yes, there was that little movie that was called The Salton Sea. It starred Val Kilmer, and it was actually alright, a nice little slice of film noir with a really fucked up locale. But I wondered how long I would have to wait to see something that was really about this place?
Luckily, I didn’t have to wait too long for an answer.
Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea is a documentary by filmmakers Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer, with narration by John Waters and music by Friends of Dean Martinez.
The film shares people's stories and their difficulties in keeping their unique community alive, as the nearby cities of Los Angeles and San Diego attempt to take the agricultural water run-off that barely sustains the Salton Sea. The film ultimately explores the historical, economic, political, and environmental issues that face the Salton Sea, but does so in a personal manner where you get to know the people who have chosen to live in what they see as a surreal paradise.
And what a cast of characters!
There is the ever drinking walrus mustached fellow. With mug in hand, he talks about the recent influx of low income mainly black residents of his little slice of paradise, Bombay Beach. Bombay Beach is the closest thing to a community the Salton Sea has. But there is nothing to do, which is probably why some of these people drink forty ouncers and smoke weed each and every day when they aren’t breaking shit and causing a ruckus. No cops would ever come around, he says. “what are they going to do? Give them a lollipop?”
The bulk of the remainder of its residents are retired people who can’t afford to move anywhere else and are (in the words of one of the more sane people in the movie) here to die. Everyone rides around in golf carts because the closest gas station is at least twenty miles away. And this place, more than the other spots around the sea, is beyond gross. And yet there is something oddly appealing about it to me. It is like the last frontier of sanity or something.
Then there is who I like to call “Cancer Lady”, the ever smoking elderly women who beat cancer years ago and was probably quite a pistol in her day. She attributes her health to living in such a fucked up place like the Salton Sea. In one great scene, she is riding around in her golf cart around the half submerged sinkhole of a community and touched briefly on the low income population by saying the unforgettable line” some of the black kids are just delightful, but..” and then pointing out a windmill themed house by laughing at it. People in Bombay Beach have dropped dead, some of old age. Others of gunshots. Who is up for a road trip?
We also meet a eccentric Hungarian freedom fighter, a elderly smiling waving nudist, a friendly man who through the vessel of God, has constructed nearby “Salvation Mountain”. This place has to be seen to be believed. There are a few sane people here, and more than a few dreamers, real estate savvy hopefuls and other people who think it is just a matter of time (and apparently millions of dollars) before the fifties promise of the Salton Sea will one day be realized. But time is running out. In some weird way, this movie tells all of these people’s stories in a very personal way so that you are almost rooting for all of them somehow. It is a great movie that I would recommend to everyone and anyone. You can get it on Netflix.
One day I really want to visit this place. But no, not in the summertime. I also can’t help but think about the idea of maybe one day I am going to end up living in a place like this. If I am alive in thirty years, will I be looked upon as an eccentric grey haired Russian Jewish looking bearded freak who wears a winter cap in one hundred and ten degree weather, being filmed by the edge of the barely furnished shack by the decaying cesspool of what is left of the Salton Sea? Will I be snickering about all of the alkaline dust storms whipping thier way into the rich and powerful town of nearby Palm Springs, destroying all of thier plantlife and really bumming out all of those folks who want to play a real good game of golf?
I just might..after all, this is America. Dreams come true.
