By Donald H. Harrison

SALTON SEA, Calif.— The inland Salton Sea certainly is no Dead Sea but unless care is taken to deal with its increasing salinity, it could become The Very Sick Sea.

The problem is that the 35-by-15 mile Salton Sea is becoming increasingly salty as the result of diminishing supplies of  water from three local rivers and the runoff from agricultural fields served by the All-American Canal. In a way, says California Park Ranger Steven Bier, the problem is not unlike that of the Dead Sea, which is experiencing reduced inflow from the Jordan River.


Michael Field of the San Diego Museum of Natural History made this photograph in 2001 of a  dead tree along 
the shore of the Salton Sea.  The sea could also die if the problem of increasing salinity is not addressed.

One of the proposed save-the-sea solutions for the Salton Sea is reminiscent of one that has long been discussed in Israel.  Those who have urged a "Red to Dead" canal to carry water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea would recognize the logic behind a proposal to lay pipelines between the Salton Sea and the Sea of Cortez for exchanges of water. 

As a Red to Dead Canal would require close cooperation between neighbors Israel and Jordan which face each other across the Dead Sea, as well as with the nearby Palestinian Authority, so too would a Salton-to-Cortez pipeline require close cooperation between the United States and Mexico.  

To access the Sea of Cortez, also known as the Gulf of California,  a pipeline would have to cross Mexican territory.  This proposal is no longer considered viable--not only because it would provide far more benefits to the United States than to Mexico, thus offering the latter little incentive to go along with it--but also because its cost would run into the billions of dollars.

Other suggestions have included huge desalinization plants, which again have prohibitive price tags, and dividing the Salton Sea into northern and southern parts, with the northern part to be retained as a body of water and the southern portion perhaps transformed into a series of settling ponds.

Rock legend Sonny Bono, the former husband and musical partner of Cher, helped to draw national attention to the problems of the Salton Sea after he was elected to Congress.  Subsequently killed in a 1998 skiing accident, he was succeeded in Congress by his wife, Mary Bono, who has continued the quest for a solution.

Bier said that the Salton Sea was considered an "inland Riviera" by the Hollywood crowd, with such stars as Humphrey Bogart  and the Marx Brothers keeping and racing boats here.  But the "petri dish" environment of the Salton Sea sometimes results in large kills of fish and birds, reducing the water body's popularity.  Once there was a time when the Salton Sea was covered with boats every weekend, and some popular spots along its shore seemed to be wall to wall with fishermen, said the ranger.

Yesterday, with temperatures quite moderate, the Salton Sea would have seemed a perfect place for a weekend getaway, but the vast parking lot in front of the Visitor's Center was nearly deserted-- the result not only of the virtual disappearance of such popular sports fish as the sargo and the orange mouth corvina, but also because in recent years the Salton Sea has suffered what Bier believes are undeserved public relations problems.  According to the critics, the Salton Sea is overloaded with pesticides, sewage and selenium--all "myths" according to Bier.  


Ranger Steven Bier on shore of Salton Sea. A  plaque explains the Sea's origins and problems.  Please click on the plaque photo for an enlarged view.  (Donald H. Harrison photos)


The Salton Sea occasionally burps gasses that smell like rotten eggs--a natural phenomenon that further complicates the California Park Service's efforts to counter rumors of unhealthful conditions.  Undeterred, Bier and his colleagues offer rebuttals.  "Elevated levels of pesticides have been found in the inflows to the Sea, but are not at significant levels in the Sea," according to an official statement.  "In fact, while pesticides have been known to kill a couple of birds every year on agricultural fields, not a single bird is known to have died from pesticides at the Sea itself."

As for sewage flowing from Mexico into the New River, the California Park Service responds that only 12 percent of the Salton Sea's waters originate in the New River. It adds:: "By the time water containing human and industrial wastes crosses the border and traverses the 60 miles to its delta at the Sea, the New River's water quality is nearly equivalent to that of the nearby Alamo River's. Waste from Mexico undergoes natural treatment in the River and is diluted by agricultural drain water from the Imperial Valley.  Additionally a wastewater treatment plant is being constructed in Mexicali to improve water quality in the New River."

Concerning selenium, The California Park Service says, "Selenium is not found in the waters of the Sea at levels above safety standards, despite elevated counts in the rivers entering the sea. In fact, there is less selenium in the water of the Salton Sea than in San Francisco's drinking water.  Selenium has been identified at slightly elevated levels in the sediments of the deepest parts of the Sea.  At these deep levels, it is not available to the food chain."  However, the Park Service notes, "selenium can become concentrated in the food chain, and some studies have found elevated levels in fish. While selenium at low levels is essential for health, too much can have adverse effects. As a result, an advisory has been issued warning against eating fish from the Sea more than once every two weeks."

These controversies, according to Bier, divert attention from the major problem facing the Salton Sea--its increasing hyper-salinity.  Currently the Sea's salt content is 47 parts per thousand, compared to only 32 parts per thousand in the Pacific Ocean.  Still, that is but a pittance of salt compared to an estimated 333 parts per thousand in the Dead Sea, where no species live, except perhaps for the tourists who are delighted by the fact that they can actually sit on its salt-heavy waters without sinking.

At the Salton Sea, some fish may periodically die off, but others thrive, including tilapia, which are estimated to number over 200 million this year, according to Bier.  The many nutrients that flow into the Salton Sea support microorganisms, which in turn provide sustenance to macro-organisms.  These are fed upon by fish, which attract millions of migratory birds  Besides brown pelicans, white pelicans and sea gulls, birds likely to be spotted without too much difficulty at the Salton Sea include eared grebes, burrowing owls, great blue herons, and ospreys. Approximately 400 species have been documented by local bird watchers.

The scarcity of water and affordable housing in California add to the litany of the Salton Sea's problems, according to Bier.  Less runoff from agricultural fields is likely as farms are sold for real estate developments near the Salton Sea, or as farmers turn to less water-intensive crops and sell off the balance of their water rights.  Residents of the new housing developments require their own allotments of fresh water. On the other hand, suggests Bier, having more people living near the Salton Sea may draw more attention to its problems.  Located in the sparsely populated eastern portion of Riverside County, the Salton Sea does not command as much attention as the coastal resources near where many environmentalists live.

Although Bier has not yet visited the Dead Sea, he says the land of Israel is part of his background.  His maternal grandfather immigrated to the United States from Poland, via Mandatory Palestine, where he  performed as part of a traveling theater company.   Bier grew up in California's wine country north of San  Francisco, where his Jewish mother and Christian father taught him a love of camping and nature.  He has worked nearly four years for the California Parks Service, breaking in at a nearby park for off-road vehicles and moving over to the Salton Sea about a year ago.