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Irrigation Canal Dug in South California
Irrigation canal was dug from the Colorado River to the old Alamo River channel an effort to provide water into the Imperial Valley for farming. Headgates to canals suffered a buildup of silt, so series of cuts were made in the bank of the Colorado River to further increase water flow. -
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Salton Sea Formed
Water from the Colorado River spilled out of a poorly constructed California Development Country irrigation system. The lake continued to grow over the next two years before the massive flow was finally stopped. By the time this happened, a 400-square mile body of water had formed on the Salton Basin in Southern California. -
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Tourism Strikes Salton Sea
After originally very high salination in the Salton Sea, levels began to drop. The Salton Sea then became a popular tourist hotspot, attracting millions of visitors a year to the sea's relatively warm waters, some years attracting more visitors than Yosemite. Nearby towns such as Salton City and Niland welcomed guests, appreciated its reputation as a warm oasis. -
Short Lived Popularity of Salton Sea
By the 1970s, shoreline flooding, rising salinity, and fertilizter runoff created unsafe algal bloom giving rise to increased bacteria levels. A chemical shift in the water caused a startling die-off of fish and bird populations. So many fish died that in some places once-sandy beaches are now large expanses of fish bones. -
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Current State of Salton Sea
Although many people still live in the area around the sea, only a mere shadow of once-was remains. In 1990, California's government officials considered a plan to revitalize, however, little came out of it. -
Concluding Statement
In 2007, the California Natural Resources Agency released a study of eight potential approaches to restoring the sea, with a corresponding cost of $9 billion. The plan was determined infeasible. In 2018, proposition 68, passed by California voters, authorized $200 million for Salton Sea management activities.
