Dust Storms Worsen Around Disappearing Salton Sea

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Growing up near the Salton Sea during the 1960s, Johnson, now 59, remembers a healthy lake with a flourishing tourism industry. Southern Californians flocked to the shores of nearby Bombay Beach and Salton City to sun, sail and waterski. The sea, created by a major Colorado River outpouring caused by an engineering accident in 1905, had become a boon for the Imperial Valley.

Its glory days have come and gone. Today, the primary driver of change is a water transfer deal, the Quantification Settlement Agreement, that’s redirecting Colorado River water away from the Imperial Valley agriculture and toward the growing cities of San Diego County and the Coachella Valley. Intermittent periods of drought, and changing global climate patterns, have complicated and exacerbated the problem. The result is that the sea has begun to shrink. Most importantly for local residents, the Salton Sea’s receding waterline exposes vast stretches of lakebed, which releases tiny particles of airborne dust. The dust triggers asthma and allergies, especially in children, and can exacerbate cardiovascular conditions in older adults.

If left alone, the receding sea could leave 84,000 acres of dusty lakebed exposed by 2047, according to the Imperial Irrigation District’s estimates. Combined with local air pollution from vehicle emissions and agricultural burning, the dust represents a serious threat to respiratory health.

The public health costs could climb as high as $37 billion in the next three decades, according to a report released by the Pacific Institute. Treating chronic respiratory conditions is costly — the average hospitalization in Imperial County comes with a $16,000 price tag. Even if efforts are taken to minimize the blowing dust, annual public health costs will continue to grow as the sea shrinks. In 2003, the Imperial Irrigation District began paying farmers to fallow part of their land and send the excess “mitigation water” into the sea to slow the shrinkage. But this preventive measure ends after 2017, and California lawmakers, having failed to act during most of the 15-year interim period, have recently been scrambling to preclude the impending public health disaster.

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http://www.desertsun.com/story/salton-sea/2017/10/25/salton-sea-communities-no-longer-good-place-live-those-respiratory-issues/769970001/