The Salton Sea Was an Accident. Now It's a $583M Problem

The Salton Sea, California's largest lake, was an accident. In 1905, the Colorado River broke into an irrigation canal and poured into a dry desert basin for almost two years. When it was finally stopped, California had a new lake. Nobody planned it. For decades, farm drainage kept the Salton Sea alive. Resorts lined its shore, and huge flocks of birds came to depend on it. Then the water deals changed. Since 2003, the lake has dropped about fifteen and a half feet, and the lakebed it leaves behind can blow away as dust. The state has already committed more than half a billion dollars to hold that damage down. Now the hot brine beneath its southern shore is being measured for lithium. Millions of tons of it. So should California keep paying to save the Salton Sea, or let it go? CHAPTERS 0:00 A lake that was never supposed to exist 2:29 The 1905 breach 4:42 Kept alive by farm drainage 6:06 Resort coast, die-offs and the water deal 9:24 Toxic dust and the cost of holding it down 11:28 Lithium Valley 13:18 What the Salton Sea really is #SaltonSea #California #Lithium