For desolate, shrinking Salton Sea, another dream
By JENNIFER MEDINA
29 July 2012 OASIS, California – Signs of once grandiose dreams dot the shoreline of the Salton Sea, dried up like the dead fish that bob ashore from time to time. This lake, the largest in California, was once supposed to be the Riviera of the West, a playground for stars like Frank Sinatra, Jerry Lewis and Desi Arnaz. But the Salton Sea, created by accident 40 miles south of Palm Springs, has been shrinking for decades now, while the saline content continues to rise — it is roughly 50 percent saltier than the Pacific Ocean. Waterfront homes built more than a generation ago sit abandoned and boarded up, on a labyrinth of streets where only a couple of houses on each block are occupied. But California does not give up easily on its dreams, so yet another ambitious development is poised to rise beside this vanishing sea. Government officials have approved plans for a town that would eventually grow to nearly 40,000 people, with enough businesses and jobs to support the residents. Supporters of the project say it is the most sustainable development being planned in the state, but the town, known as Travertine Point, would be more than 20 miles from any existing town. In many ways, the project is a sign of the state’s insatiable appetite for new development, even in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, which has struggled through the building bust and foreclosure crisis. This might be among the most unlikely places in the county to contemplate a superdevelopment, but officials are unabashed in their enthusiasm and say the optimism is firmly grounded in reality. “Recreational bodies of water don’t stay unoccupied forever,” said John Benoit, the Riverside County supervisor who represents the area and pushed for the project’s approval. “You can either take development piecemeal as it comes, or invest in something that is really taking the long-term view of creating comprehensive, unprecedented development.” But environmental advocates have cried foul, filing a lawsuit in state court claiming that the project will irreparably harm the natural resources in the area. More than that, they say, the idea is just plain absurd. “It’s one of the greatest examples of dumb growth you could possibly conjure up,” said Adam Keats, a staff lawyer at the Center for Biological Diversity, which with the Sierra Club is suing to stop the project. “It’s located very far away from the rest of civilization in a place that is very difficult to live. The notion that this could be a Shangri-La is something we should have given up a long time ago.” […] Whether the sea will even exist in a decade remains in question. Under a water transfer agreement approved by the state, water from nearby agricultural developments will stop flowing in by 2018, which means the shores, which now shrink about seven inches a year, will recede more quickly and dust levels in the area will rapidly increase. “It’s like shutting off the only faucet they have,” said Michael Cohen, a researcher with the Pacific Institute, a nonprofit group based in San Francisco. “There has long been a slow decline, but this will have a far more dramatic change because species cannot adapt that quickly.” […]
Not to worry! A little more tectonic activity, and the Salton Sea will become the northern end of the Sea of Cortez. Maybe they can extend the great new High Speed Rail project down to serve all the new residents.