mental_floss magazine
SUBSCRIBE >
GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS >
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS >
subscriber services >
When Life Gives You Massive River Flooding, Make Lemonade
In a fit of early 1900s nature-subduing enthusiasm, the good people of California decided to turn Imperial Valley (a desert) into a vast agricultural paradise (not a desert). To do so, they started cutting irrigation channels from the Colorado River. When those filled up with silt, they cut a little deeper, digging out a large gap in the River’s bank to increase flow. Then, in 1905, the floods came, washing out the engineered canal and pouring thousands of gallons of water directly from the River into a previously dry below-sea-level basin. It took two years to get the flooding under control, by which point the basin had become a lake—the Salton Sea. In 1907 the first sport fish were imported and a tourist attraction was born.
Put Your Trust in Runoff
With the broken canals now repaired, the Salton Sea had no inlet or outlet. Instead, all it’s water came from farm irrigation runoff. At first, nobody saw this as a problem. Then the Sea’s salinity (and pollution levels) started to increase. Turns out, farmers were pulling water from the Sea, putting it on their crops, and letting it flow back in. Each time, the water picked up a little more salt and a few more pesticide chemicals. Eventually, this led to outbreaks of algae, massive fish die-offs, and a salinity level greater than the Pacific Ocean.
Assume You Won’t Have To Deal With More Flooding In the Future
By the 1960s, regardless of its increasingly salty nature, the Salton Sea had become one of California’s busiest tourist attractions and it’s most popular state park. Investors built swanky resorts, but, unfortunately, nobody thought to build flood control systems. Then came 1976, when a tropical storm hit the area, marking the beginning of seven years of extra-heavy rains. Most of the new developments ended up underwater or bankrupt as investors bailed. Worse, increased runoff meant that even more chemicals and salt poured into the Sea. By the 1980s, there was little left of the once-thriving fishing and boating industries. Today, the Sea is home to several half-flooded trailer-park communities and one thriving bird sanctuary. Still ever saltier, it’s expected to lose most of its fish population in the next few years.
Comments (6)
Comment
- Follow mental_floss
My Grandmother owns a lot there. Anyone want to buy it?
I was told by someone on a plane as we were flying over the Salton Sea that to stem the flow of water they started running boxcars and various old train pieces into the water. Any truth to that?
posted by Dusty on 8-28-2007 at 9:41 am
Dusty – I remember there was an excellent article on it was published in the Winter 2006 (Volume 21, Issue 3) issue of Invention & Techology Magazine (published by American Heritage).
I found the article online:
http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/2006/3/2006_3_38.shtml
They went through a LOT of effort to dam the water!
posted by Sid Morrison on 8-28-2007 at 10:46 am
Sid,
Thanks for the article, it looks very interesting.
posted by Dusty on 8-28-2007 at 11:24 am
“Turns out, farmers were pulling water from the Sea, putting it on their crops, and letting it flow back in.”
The irrigation system in the Imperial Valley is gravity fed and the water is so cheap that it would cost mere to pump it up hill out of the Salton Sea, than to get it when it flows down hill to the farm. I can’t imagine anyone profitably pumping out of the sea.
“I was told by someone on a plane as we were flying over the Salton Sea that to stem the flow of water they started running boxcars and various old train pieces into the water. Any truth to that?”
At one point during the fifth attempt(of ten) to close the break at the Colorado River, some flatcars loaded with rock fell into the breach when a trestle across the break collapsed. There is one account of a locomotive being jacked up and rolled over the side, but while the equipment records of the Southern Pacific Railroad (who was doing the work at that point) confirm the flatcars, there are no missing, lost or sacrificed locomotives connected with the project.
posted by Steve on 8-28-2007 at 1:13 pm
Let’s just hope drought never reduces the lake to nothing. If that happens that area would be primed for a tragedy similar to that of the Aral Sea.
hercules.gcsu.edu/~sdatta/home/teaching/hydro/case_studies/aral_sea.html
posted by Justin L on 8-28-2007 at 1:16 pm
There’s an excellent documentary making the rounds this summer on Sundance about the Salton Sea – there’s a site for it at
http://www.sundancechannel.com/films/500203160
posted by Roger on 8-28-2007 at 2:27 pm