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Salton Sea Case Study

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3 The Salton Sea is the largest lake in California. It covers approximately 343 square miles and has a maximum depth of only 43 feet. The Salton Sea is a salt water lake that was created by accident, when the salt flat known as the Salton Sink was flooded. In the year 1905, heavy rainfall caused several canals off of the Colorado River to swell, which caused water to flood into the Salton Sink, creating the Salton Sea. For a time, the Salton Sea was a popular tourist attraction with many resort towns around the massive lake. But eventually all of the agricultural runoff from surrounding areas polluted the lake.
The Salton Sea is now a shadow of its former self, with many environmental problems. The water is unclean with many contaminants. Many …show more content…

In order for these plans to work, a shallow water dike would need to be built around where the Alamo and New River feed into the Salton Sea. Then, an artificial river would need to be created to bring water from the south end of the Salton Sea to treatment facilities that would be built at the north end of the sea. The water would flow north, then would be treated, and then would be deposited back into the Salton Sea at the north end. This would over time allow for water to continue feeding the Salton Sea, except it would be clean water. The downside to this plan is that in order to create a canal and to flow water into it, it would expose much more of the basin along the shore.
The most realistic plans to save the Salton Sea involve a multilevel approach including the use of dikes, evaporation systems, water treatment and desalination facilities, and artificial rivers to transport water. However, in order to restore the Salton Sea, salt is not the only thing that must be removed. Nutrient removal must be performed at the tributaries to the Salton Sea. The issue of agricultural runoff must be addressed before any of these plans can be successful. Realistically, if the runoff is not cleaned before it enters into the Salton Sea, then the sea will continue to become more and more

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