Growth may decide sea's future
The Press Enterprise - 7/20/03
TOURISM: The Coachella Valley's affluent population sets it apart from Owens Lake.

07/20/2003

By GEORGE WATSON
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

The Salton Sea shares a number of qualities with Owens Lake that experts say may well make it susceptible to the dust storms that have plagued Owens Valley residents for decades.

Salt fills the water of the Salton Sea, as it did in Owens Lake before it dried up in the early 1900s. The sea is a basin lake, meaning it has no outflow, and when water evaporates, it leaves behind the salt and other compounds. The same happened to Owens Lake in the mid-1920s.

But there are several key points that separate the two, which supporters of the sea hope may help them in their fight to save it.

The 360-square-mile sea, which depends on farm runoff, is in danger because of uncertainties with Southern California's impending water transfer -- part of a plan to cut California back to its legal share of the Colorado River.

When Owens Lake dried up, few people lived in the area. Although a scarcity of people living near the Salton Sea has contributed to its lack of support, some believe the Coachella Valley's vast growth potential will play a key role, especially because many are affluent.

"It's one of the most suburbanizing areas in California," Buford Crites, a Palm Desert councilman and chairman of the Coachella Valley Association of Government's Energy and Environment Committee, said by phone. "It's rich people, lots of school children. It's families. It's an economy that has a lot of players in it, resort players on a national scale."

The 2000 U.S. Census reported 355,000 people living in the Coachella Valley. The Southern California Association of Governments projects the population will grow to more than 600,000 by 2025.

About 15,000 people live in Owens Valley.

State's highest asthma rate

Because the Coachella Valley already has an air-quality problem caused by particulate matter called PM-10, Crites said, people must get serious about the sea's future.

Images of choking dust storms further diminishing the current air quality are sticking in people's minds, officials say.

"For a community that relies on tourism, that opened a lot of eyes," said Tom Kirk, executive director of the Salton Sea Authority, in a phone interview. It's also concerned officials in the Imperial Valley, about 100 miles east of San Diego. The Imperial Valley has the highest asthma rate in the state, he said.

The makeup of each lake's sediment is another key difference between the two. DDT and other pesticides have leaked in from farm runoff and are found in sediment studies of the Salton Sea. Those chemicals had not been invented when Owens Lake went dry.

No one knows exactly what will happen to the newly exposed lakebed if the Salton Sea begins to dry up. But Kirk says he believes a dust problem would start as soon as the sea began to significantly drop, exposing shoreline.

Chemicals in Salton Sea

Owens Lake was filled with salt water. When it dried, the lake bottom evolved into a salty crust that breaks up easily, sending PM-10 to be carried away by the wind.

Richard Vogl, a hydrogeology expert hired by the Salton Sea Authority to inspect sediment on the bottom of the sea, testified before the state Water Resources Control Board. He found inorganic and organic chemicals, such as selenium and boron, he said. Vogl also found abundant barnacle shells and some fish bones, along with silt, clay and finely grained sands.

"If elevated wind conditions occur, the sediment could become airborne and travel great distances," Vogl said in his testimony.

After spending much of his career working to control the dust at Owens Lake, Ted Schade of the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District said he believes similar problems could strike in the Coachella Valley.

"If it was 5 percent or 10 percent of the problem that Owens Lake has, it would be a real problem," Schade said by phone. "There's been no hard evidence to show it will be less than 1 percent. There are too many similarities."

Reach George Watson at (909) 368-9457 or gwatson@pe.com