‘The air is toxic’: how an idyllic California lake became a nightmare
The shrinking Salton Sea was once a tourist destination. Now it’s home to dangerous algal blooms, endless dust and noxious air
But here’s the thing:
The current lake was created by inflow of water from the Colorado River in 1905. Beginning in 1900, an irrigation canal was dug from the Colorado River to the old Alamo River channel to provide water to the Imperial Valley for farming. The headgates and canals sustained a buildup of silt, so a series of cuts was made in the bank of the Colorado River to further increase the water flow. Water from spring floods broke through a canal head-gate diverting a portion of the river flow into the Salton Basin for two years before repairs were completed. The water in the formerly dry lake bed created the modern lake that is about 15 by 35 miles (24 by 56 km).
The Salton Sea is a cock up, it’s a man made flood.
Its disappearance is to be welcomed, no, as the clean up of the destruction of the environment?
And surely its time to get rid of the Norfolk Broads with those artificial lakes made by the environmentally unfriendly peat excavations
There are quite a few lakes around my way that are used for fishing and various watersports that are former gravel pits. There is a park near the Humber Bridge that is a really idyllic wooded area that used to be a quarry. There is a green hill that can be seen from the M62 that is a slag heap produced by coal mining. Environmental damage can be repaired if the will is there. Imagine what could have been done with all the money that has been wasted on climate change.
‘Its disappearance is to be welcomed, no, as the clean up of the destruction of the environment?’
Just think of all that lovely natural dust that has been prevented from blowing into peoples eyes for a century now by this awful artificial abortion.
Yes Stonyground. I remember the stink when they dumped all the garbage at the back of my place. Then they covered it with coal ash.
Now there’s a nice park there.
“a slag heap produced by coal mining”: coal mining doesn’t produce slag. Slag comes from iron-making and other metallurgical industries. People used to know this kind of thing; it was how the country made its living.
“People used to know this kind of thing”
When was that? As far back as the 1960s, you used to hear news reports about slag heaps in South Wales
““a slag heap produced by coal mining”: coal mining doesn’t produce slag. Slag comes from iron-making and other metallurgical industries. People used to know this kind of thing; it was how the country made its living.”
I think the spoil heaps that coal mining produced are colloquially called slag heaps quite often in the UK.
Jim: I don’t deny that the ignorance and stupidity is widespread. Hell, it’s like confusing a pasture with a meadow, or hay with straw. Happens all the time. Still bollocks.
An unnecessary piece of pedantry there dearyme, spoil heaps produced by coal mines being referred to as slag heaps has been common for all my life. You might just as well have said that the word referred to a young woman of easy virtue.
“like confusing a pasture with a meadow”
Apparently not as simple as you might think:
Lane, Carolina. “The Development of Pastures and Meadows during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.” The Agricultural History Review 28, no. 1 (1980): 18-30. Accessed July 24, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40274066.
https://bahs.org.uk/AGHR/ARTICLES/28n1a2.pdf
and
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=NUn-AQAAQBAJ&lpg=PA182&ots=GuLgzp9tmO&dq=confusing%20a%20pasture%20with%20a%20meadow&pg=PA182#v=onepage&q=confusing%20a%20pasture%20with%20a%20meadow&f=false
I drove over to the Salton Sea once from San Diego. On the other side are the Chocolate Mountains, but they didn’t look much like Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, or even Hershey Bars…
Yep spoil heaps always referred to a slag heaps and also individual pieces were often called clinker despite the fact they had been nowhere near a kiln or furnace. Sometimes people can’t be bothered to distinguish things beyond the level of great big heap of industrial waste.
I live not too far away from the Salton Sea. Its responsible for not a little bit of the tiny bit of humidity my town gets. Driving along the interstate, I’ve seen fog *in the desert* because of it.
And its not actually totally man-made. Depending on the river’s course, its been naturally filled at different times.
But its been in current existence since the 1905 flooding. At some point they should have just cut an inflow and outflow notch to stabilize it and properly manage it (by the point that there was significant economic activity attached to it – I would have liked the farmers and the resort owners to have been able to fund this collectively).
Because once its gone its going to take centuries before the dead fish smell goes away.
The late, great Huell Howser whipping up some enthusiasm about his tour of the Salton Sea is one of the greatest bits of travel-documentary I’ve seen. Puts Michael Portillo to shame. Even starts with one of the absurdly long American trains…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yQqcYBeCmw