California's only sea is dying and now threatening children

California's largest lake is facing major environmental problems with a decreasing water level, increasing salinity and a new public health problem linked to airborne toxic dust left behind by the lake's receding water. less California's largest lake is facing major environmental problems with a decreasing water level, increasing salinity and a new public health problem linked to airborne toxic dust left behind by the lake's ... more Photo: MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images Photo: MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images Image 1 of / 27 Caption Close California's only sea is dying and now threatening children 1 / 27 Back to Gallery

The Salton Sea is steadily disappearing, and communities near it are literally being left in the dust.

California's largest body of water — located in Imperial County near the Mexico-U.S. border — has been sinking for years, and dust clouds containing heavy metals, agricultural chemicals and fine particulates connected to asthma and other diseases are harming young people in that area.

Children living in Imperial Valley have higher rates of respiratory problems compared to children elsewhere in the United States, according to a recently released government-funded survey conducted by researchers at the University of Southern California.

The USC scientists surveyed parents of first- and second-graders at four elementary schools near the Salton Sea, and found that up to 43 percent of parents said their children experienced wheezing, and up to 30 percent said their child had asthma.

Preliminary results from dust sample analysis suggest that the wind-blown matter may lead to adverse changes in the movement of immune cells into the lung immediately following exposure, though more research is needed.

Southeastern California has some of the worst air pollution in the United States, as farm dirt and desert collide with clouds of dust rising from the Salton Sea's receding shores.

"The Salton Sea has exacerbated an already bad situation," said Michael Cohen, senior researcher with the Pacific Institute in Oakland who has studied the Salton Sea for years. "There are a lot of children suffering there now and the amount of suffering will get worse."

Cohen said 2018 represents a "tipping point" for the Salton Sea, which had been dropping by as much as a half a foot annually, as it is now expected to fall by three times that amount each year. He estimates that about 15 percent less water will flow into Salton Sea this year than it did last year.

There has also been about 21,000 acres of land exposed in the past 15 years, but he said it's hard to quantify the amount of dust in the air.

Drought and diversions have drained the sea of its water over time, and in January 2018, more water began moving from the Imperial Valley to San Diego as part of a long-term water agreement that began in 2003 — the largest agriculture-to-urban water transfer in U.S. history.

The Salton Sea is technically not a lake, because it's a non-draining body of water with no ability to cleanse itself. Heavy metals and chemical rich agricultural runoff are trapped inside, and sewage water flows in from places such as the New River, one of the most polluted rivers in the country.

The sea is man-made body of water that was accidentally created in 1905 when the Colorado River broke through a silt-laden canal, filled into a basin for two years and grew into a 360-square-mile lake straddling Imperial and Riverside counties.

It had its heyday in the 1950s and '60s, when it was built up as a waterfront resort getaway that featured world-class biodiversity.

But by 2014, large swaths of sea bed were exposed and salt levels increased. Similarly, large-scale fish kills, dead migratory birds and dust clouds have all had negative impacts on local tourism.

The salinity levels in the Salton Sea are more than 50 parts per thousand and rising, compared to the Pacific Ocean, which is about 35 parts per thousand.

Twenty years ago, the Salton Sea was teeming with about 100 million tilapia, but only about 1 million to 2 million remain, Cohen said, and due to the high salinity, very few fish species can now tolerate the water.

"It's something like a 99 percent population crash," Cohen said.

In November 2017, the California State Water Resources Control Board approved a 10-year, $400-million plan to build thousands of acres of wetlands and ponds in Imperial Valley, intended to help restore the Salton Sea and control dust.

However, only about $80 million of that $400 million has been appropriated, and only $3 million of that has actually been spent on the project, Cohen said.

"They're doing a lot of planning, but they aren't doing a lot of building, and people are pretty frustrated," Cohen said. "It's almost two years since they've had that money."

The Pacific Institute has estimated that without significant steps to address the sea's problems, the costs over the next 30 years could range from $29 billion to $70 billion – including higher health care costs for illnesses and lower property values.