When California's Greatest Treasure Became a National Disgrace: The Salton Sea - IT'S HISTORY 

Ok I’m new here and love your content, but seriously PLEASE lower the volume of the It’s History intro! It’s WAY louder than anything else in ANY of your videos I’ve recently watched!

Bay sin not bass in

Yes, thank you - but it's not coming back IMHO - water from where??

@@stevengill1736 it has no place in this historic drought the region is experiencing. Wildlife will adapt.

Yeah im not surprised seeing how Nazi Pelosi helps run that shithole! You can give them all the money in the world to fix it and they will just pocket the money!

Oorah!

Awesome story

@@shamokinthunderclap2166 Depends what you mean? One would be a USAF Boeing B-52 Bomber requesting permission to buzz the tower of USN aircraft carrier. They apparently had been in communication with the carrier group. They started out as a spect and grew as flew toward the port side of the ship. You could look over and literally look down on those inside the B-52. As it passed by it banked off into the horizon . I was in Utah standing on a mesa when I saw a B-52 flying low across the desert, as it approached I realized the we were at a higher elevation than the B-52. We were looking down on a B-52 going who knows where?

@@Mike-tg7dj I was a 1391 I got to fuel alot of craft fixed, rotator and hybrid . Hearing and seeing videos of the marvels of engineering built by the lowest bidder kind of get blood flowing like no stripe about to enter the mile high.

I have known of areas below sea level and even hiked through a few... but I loved your story. That a pilot would be rather giddy about it and fly low just to show you is a great story!

That’s crazy the SS fixed up your pup!

Like the rest of Calif.

@@mochiebellina8190 exactly.

@@marissa3762 lol that could have a very different meaning

You can't fix stupid !!

They've smelled the Salton Sea in LA after a lot of fish have died

I experienced it while working in Cabazon... The smell was horrible, must have been around 2010-2012

That "Smell" is most likely H2S gas(hydrogen sulfide) and can attack every system of a humans body long and Sort term, basically if you smell it? You are over exposed via OSHA PEL. My wife thought she was having heart problems when she was exposed and the dr diagnosed "stress". I was out of town and not there to demand a blood gas test. once you are removed from the smell it is almost impossible to detect in the body long term. Ho Yes! the allies used this gas in WWI to kill Germans.

That is the smell of nature cleaning up a mess that should have NEVER been made in the first place. Humans built the current lake, and then they stocked it. Huge mistakes that people today are having to pay for.

@@foobarmaximus3506 what kinda fish lived in it?

Yikes! Getting horror movie vibes!

Hello Peter

Repent to Jesus Christ “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” ‭‭1 John‬ ‭5:14‬ ‭NIV‬‬ J

I've always wondered what the story is behind Loop Dr in Salton City. Such grand plans with roads and parcels all platted out. How much of the infrastructure is still functional? Is there anything similar here in OR?

@@poofygoof if there is, they're likely gold rush era ghost towns, around the high deserts of NV/CA/OR/etc. which of course mostly had their highs and lows in an earlier era. There was one planned city some gajillionaire tried to put out in the desert somewhere and sold a bunch of land plots for development, but the people never came. The dirt streets are probably still visible today.

Democrats...

Just like a pond with no entrance/exit, eventually every in it dies from lack of oxygen and nutrients.

@Risk Hassbro 😊

Newsome cares! I promise

💲💲💦

@@Gfysimpletons I hope you're kidding

@@kevineckelkamp of course I am.

With all the issues going on, do you think people would want their tax dollars going toward that?

You're part of a lucky group, I bet the transformation is a trip

Mom gave our lot in town to the county rather than pay taxes!

Gross.

So sad. I remember good fishing there from the early 60s.

wow

Is a bot reading the text? They made a few errors like that.

San Anders fault???

@@joshuahollahan5777 Yeah, it kind of took the feeling of real knowledge out of the whole presentation.

I have no idea what this is about. I keep hearing "bass in", stinging my ear.

He just missed saying it right a couple times but did later on. No biggie. Sometimes people seem so fussy and critical over the most minor things.

That's why the only other alternative is bringing ocean water which still is 40% less salty.

As you said, the watersheds of the Colorado are beyond the point of unnervingly dry. I live in Salt Lake City and have watched the precipitation dwindle for 44 years. The Great Salt Lake is nearly at an all time low. I remember the floods of '83 and long for spring rains like those. Every time it rains or snows I celebrate, no matter how minute the amount. Just today we got a bit of rain in the valleys and snow in the mountains. I don't just follow this as an avid skier, but as someone who's desperately clinging to the hope of a shift in weather patterns. The wildfires across the west every single summer get worse and worse as Lake Powell and Lake Mead continue to dwindle. To say it bums me out would be a gross understatement. I love this land and hate to see it so scorched. The Colorado doesn't even make it to the Gulf of California anymore. Between agriculture and drought we are screwed. OOF! Such a monumental bummer . . .

Indeed. Using freshwater for that would be a waste considering the situation. Sea water is the only solution if you ask me. Not sure why they need a canal tho. Wont pipes and pumpes do? I guess a canal is cheaper in the long run (No need to run pumps) but cost way more upfront. Moving water across a flat surface with pumps is rather cheap. Its only when you lift it like up the colorado mountains it gets expensive.

@@Stevie-J Agreed! A shitshow from day one.

@@MrDanisve It's below sea level, wouldn;t need pumps at least.

I had a similar experience in 2007. It was heart breaking to see such a beautiful lake destroyed.

Sad that this state allows everything to be destroyed, even the entire state itself.

We were but humble visitors in 2017 to the state of California and other states like Arizona on that summer's road trip. Our curiosity was quashed by the stench, dead fish, and post apocalyptic feeling that rings this body of water. As quirky and interesting as some of the art projects were in some of the towns, nothing can dress up this slow-moving disaster. The USSR created the disaster legacy of the Aral Sea, and the USA has the Salton Sea.

@@ryanotte6737 Sad how man is destroying every square inch.

I'm glad the toxic run off didn't get into the sea. Sad for the people who live there.

How is that safe or legal

@@Stevie-J yes and no, it is a naturally occurring intermittent lake, humans just filled it up again, it dose it on its own sometimes too.

Theres no living fish

i was a truck driver in early 70’s,i would unload in L.A,i would go I-10 to Palm. Beach,go south on highway 11-15,to the i20,I remember the smell,every time I was amazed by the people who still lived there,the smell of rotten fish,sulfur &a lot more,i was stationed in SanDiego,while waiting my discharge in 1976🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

@@kevineckelkamp hurrdurr why is it not illegal to take a boat onto a lake we should control everyone at all times

It’s spelled hippie. It’s not about anatomy.

@@christopherfanelli8821 You must be fun at parties. A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in UK English, is a member of the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world.

Pretty much

@@christopherfanelli8821 and you lose.

@@christopherfanelli8821 did you understand what he was saying ? Yes ? Then shut up !

You might like the song "Salton Sea" by Josh Rouse. It has a nice video that goes along with it as well. Hope you like it!

This place needs to be abandoned. It is not fit for human life, and the water is never going to be good or stable for long. It's a natural dump.

Think Aral Sea and Dead Sea - both drying out due to human cock-ups. The latter might eventually get a sea water connection but Aral is much too isolated for that.

It's unfortunate that our government will wait until a hundred people get killed before they do something to end the killing...it even goes back to a simple Stop Sign...when they know a intersection is dangerous but they wait until several people get run over before they put one up... If the Salton Sea dries up, thousands of people in the Imperial Valley will get sick from the dust coming from the Sea.. If the State would pump in water from the ocean it would save the Salton Sea, and reduce the salt levels until something else can be done!!!! Raise the water level in the Sea back to the 1900 level!!!!

Me too !!!! I feel the same it’s kind of a thing that pulls at my heart. I almost want to live there just so the sea isn’t lonely …

You are Spot ON.. This is going to be a Major Problem Soon.. Along with the Whole So. West 38 million People W/O Water/Power. With the Demise of Lake Mead/Powell.. Some Serious Intervention needs to happen A. S. A. P. But so Far CRICKETS.. GOOD LUCK So. Westerners 🙏🙏

They should cover the Salton sea with solar panels to generate electricity, to keep water from evaporating to protect the environment.

Yes, I also thought this

Lol I moved to Salt Lake city in 05 from CA we never went to the lake and no one ever warned us about it. When family from CA drove up to visit us it was the first place they wanted to go so we were like eh why not we haven't been and omg it is not a place to go for a nice walk dead fish creepy rats with exploded heads what's that all about idk.

You can catch sea monkeys there.

Not untill it’s replenished bud

That’s exactly what I thought as a kid in 1964..to me it was the ugliest stinkiest place I’d been to..

California will never allow lithium mining. they will outsource their pollution creating batteries to a third world. As Californians do and say "Not in my backyard!"

I would love that too!

The LITHIUM for sure will be produced, as far as the promises to Mexico, sounds good, but I advise them to get it in writing. 🤔, as it is still not yet, a perfect world😉

Typical brother California gonna keep taking everyone's water

Same things happens in central TX. Cities really need to stop allowing development since they basically don't have any water.

Do you live here?

@@Marioscorneraquatics yeah

Agree.

@@SpecialSoldier109 check it out the Milwaukee gun enthusiast making up fantasy

We now have the knowledge to proceed growth. To extract lithium alone has been discussed and this alone would be financially viable. Flooding the depression again just for the sake of a lake however would be folly.

I like the way you think!

They most likely won’t allow lithium mines in the area and if they do, it’ll be purely to put money in politicians pockets. All current management plans have environmental mitigation strategies within them, showing that the state at this point at least, currently is taking into account the environmental importance of the sea. That can all change in the future though. However, due to air quality control standards, it currently would be very difficult to get a new pollutant-emitting industry in that specific county. they are within the 99th percentile (standard deviation, or in laymen’s terms they are extremely higher than the average) in PM2.5, PM10, and overall pollutant levels (data from CalEnviroScreen4.0), leaving the county population within the same high percentile spot when compared to all others in California for COPD, asthma, and other respiratory issues (via hospitalizations per 10,000) Edit: however, there are plans and pushes to reduce the toxic dust via creation of riparian habitat zones (some near Bombay and NS), and even some to pump in water from the Pacific Ocean or via the Sea of Cortez!

No. There is no valid reason to waste good water on this dump hole. CA has plenty of lakes already. This lake is dead, and should be left that way.

@@foobarmaximus3506 sheesh guy! You really hate this sea. You’re on every comment 😂

If you find the 8mm movies, put it on RU-vid. There's very little "vintage" home movie footage of Salton Sea.

@@RJSerp Unfortunately those are long gone, I haven't seen those since I was about 16. I don't know who got those when they passed.

This is so true. I went in august 2016. Visited the tar pits too. It's an alien world out there, absolutely an incredible experience.

What about living here in the Valley? We have had 3 consecutive summers with days reaching 120 F

This has been going on for DECADES. They noticed this back in the 1960s and they haven't done anything since! This will not be resolved within anyone's lifespan even if they started "reclamation" now. California is almost beyond saving with the politicians they have in power. They've wasted probably over $10 billion trying to build railway systems between SF and LA.

@@AvengerII It does seem odd that they would waste $10 billion on a railway project of unknown benefit versus restoring the sea which would have economic, health and ecological gains, especially California which apparently has a bigger GDP than the Russian federation

@@stevehill4615 Billions wasted on a useless wall could have been used to help build desalination facilities all along the West Coast.

Slab city was referenced quickly in the video. How far is it from The Salton Sea?

You're correct about the weather cycles, but the difference now is the amount of farming chemicals in the water. If it were only an issue of salt concentration, it would continue to be a natural issue that would sort itself out, but the dried out chemicals are going to pose issues that will need to be addressed at some point. Humans caused that problem, and now humans are going to need to fix it.

Intermittent lakes exist. The current global warming trend due to the alteration of the atmosphere also exists.

What!?!?! TWO PHENOMENA AT ONCE!?!?! Surely this is witchcraft and slander @@ryanotte6737 🙄

You are so correct. It was disaster from the beginning. It was stink pool 60 years ago when I first visited it .

@@generalporkchop1817 Yeah. I think that it failed as a destination because people remembered that there was a *real* ocean just over the mountains. I don't know how they managed to sell it to anyone, tbh.

@@jaex9617 Have to think and remember that back in those days of the "hay day" of the Salton Sea times were much, much different.

Parents were hippies? ~ 3rd eye on forehead ☺️🤣😅😅🤪

Your god damn right.

You said it…..real estate scam. I was told it would be the next Palm Springs. Like did no one ever think why would you even need two Palm Springs?

@Tom Pellow's Economics of Quality So yet again man will destroy ecosystems, and wildlife just so HE can have a canal, you don't care what habitation you destroy on the way, just as long as man gets what he wants. Or yet again are you going to give the wildlife a stylised area of what man calls nature,, that is more friendly to man than the wildlife.

No, and hell no! There is no valid reason for anyone to live in this region unless they are mining. This "lake" is not sustainable on any level. It's just a big ditch where nature occasionally dumps some flood water. To allow ANY water to flow into this region is a terrible waste of water that is needed elsewhere.

@@foobarmaximus3506 Its a salt water canal.

@LibtardsStillCantSilence Me21 All the toxic dust would render Los Angeles uninhabitable. (More than it already is lol)

I agree with this statement but only to a certain extent. The Salton Sea is a health concern due to the toxic environment from the exposed lakebed/shoreline. Agree an aqua Pipes or small canals, (two side by side in about 10-12-foot diameter or width) should be built from the Sea of Cortez to fill this lake back to full to submerge the toxicity. The other canal will lead back to the Sea of Cortez to run off the water as the lake becomes full to not only aid with flooding. Doing it this way will be cheaper and in the long run the lake will be replenished. THEN those greedy folks (Government offices, politicians, corporations, real-estate agents that want to turn the Salton Sea area into a desert oasis (again) can do so without ever running out of water. Making these two aqua pipes/canals will pay for itself over time. The same type of water system needs to be done in my region of the Great Salt Lake in Northern Utah. It's all about the money, though.

California is gonna California... I say that as a Californian

the materials dissolved in the water, originally at tolerable concentrations, are a major hazard if it dries out it may have been a desert many times, but it is a toxic desert

Yes. It is not a sustainable "lake". It's just one of nature's flood ponds. No one should try to make it something else. And no one needs to live here unless they are mining.

@@illdeletethismusic Tough. It is toxic because people tried to farm in a region that is not sustainable. That's where the toxic chemicals came from, and tough shit! It will eventually dry out and blow away. Plant some trees and let it go at that.

@@foobarmaximus3506 you can"t plant trees in a desert formed from a toxic lake drying out. Regardless of how the situation came about, the situation now is that it drying out will create a toxic desert, with storms carrying dust from there over a wide region. Letting it dry out because it wouldn"t be in this situation had it not flooded a century ago won"t turn back the clock to get it unflooded and unfarmed.

There are plans to mine for lithium and geothermal power on the Salton Sea. I was kind of surprised this wasn't mentioned as it might provide some economic incentive to desalinate the lake!

Damn it, got to this party too late! I come up with good ideas all the time. I just don't know how to actualize them. Im sitting on a couple unrealized ideas on how solve a few problems at the grocery store. If anyone knows an interested investor? One idea fixes something that annoys every person that buys produce. The other is a sanitation idea to keep from cross contaminating purchases.

Toxic toxic toxic

Greedy people thought they could make money farming and building lakeside resorts. It's stupid to think this place will ever be more than an occasional flood dump.

Wasn't it made by man? I thought it was

@@howardmurphy2841 Ah, nuts, this reply got too wordy as usual, but I think I've got the facts straight. It's a little muddy, (haha), but I think what happened at first was a natural but very rare occurrence of a river (Colorado?) breaking it's bank and flooding an area, and that hadn't happened for hundreds of years. Then, I think engineers and such tried to figure a way to 'fix' this or that, and this went back and forth until it looked like they may have a stable lake. So again, I think a natural action started things off, and men noodled with this and that, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. Anyway, end result, they KNEW they had a new lake, and they knew they HADN'T had one only 10 years before. So, did it make sense to do all that land development for resorts and stuff, when they really had no clue what the longer term result might be? That's what I was thinking when I made my first comment. Have a great day!

@@abcde_fz thanks 4 the info, have a great day also

Exactly! Typical Kalifornia hypocrisy.

Because California has been run exclusively by democrats for 30 years

Californians are so vocal about the environment because California is a series of environmental disasters. Hard to keep quiet when you're living in it.

Again what? The canal that was mentioned wasn't for that purpose, but to add sea water.

@@alainarchambault2331 there is a plan to build a canal large enough for ships, but it's very very far down the list. Other projects have a much greater, while still slim chance of coming to fruition.

@@RobertLeclercq Should just settle for resupply first. A ship-wide canal is ridiculous.

Profit how? LA has the best habour on the West Coast, it's fitted into the rail and road networks and it's natural; no expensive dredging required. Cruise ships aren't going to center themselves around the Salton Sea either no matter how much you develop the area for tourism. That's not how the cruise industry works.

@@anentiresleeveoforeos2087 Exactly, a canal as only needed to provide water to relieve the evaporation. The Salton Sea basin isn't all that deep to begin with.

No. This region needs to be left alone. No one should live there.

Except all of the Western states are in a state of severe drought (from the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean), so they would have to create a water pipeline system from atleast the midwest.

@@sngray11 Yes I know it's a HUGE PROJECT, but there is indeed a solution. It just takes lots of money and manpower. And I do think Washington could help as the Columbia never really lowers that much.

The fact that you think its ok to take anything from other states and give it to Commiefornia is troubling

@@ChemicalU235 America is America. Don't let snobs steal our country by letting them own any state.

better than starving

I almost stopped watching until he started saying it correctly.

Thank you. I came here to say this.

@@DresdenDoll79 and there's no shame in not knowing how to pronounce a word you"ve never heard before. He should check for proper pronunciations in advance. Like he obviously never heard San Andreas spoken before, hard to believe but must be so. So he just assumes how he thinks it should said.

@@Abortionish bruh

Also he mispronounced "Coachella". Called it Cohella.

Yes Sandy Shores is based on this area.

@@ws6032 That's awesome! Thx! 🙂

Yes, Sandy Shores is based on two settlements on the Salton Sea shore Desert Shores and Salton Sea City. Ive been to there and also live in the southern part of the county 1 hour away from the salton sea. Roaming around the area in GTA is like doing the same here at home but with less civilization.

@@Praesidio Wooow that's crazy. Must be kind of cool to see areas you actually know represented in games and such :)

@@camithewitch5265 a bit yeah, except they make it look like a wasteland full of meth heads. Though that’s only in the north. In the south center it is much more clean and normal much like a typical American town but with the largest Mexican percentage in the US.

Good, I’m not the only one…

Can you give me the name of that video please? I would love to watch it because I really want the sea to be restored and revived. Thanks.

@@StanGraham1 Crikey!! Give me a bit of time. I'll start looking now!!

@@StanGraham1 I'm sorry but I can't remember which one and have been searching. I think it was brought up in an interview with some long-term inhabitants. Sorry again. 😞

Mecca Camels!!

Um he means well idk why such major mispronuncians ocurr ~

Wouldn't a boomtown of housing and people just add to the already diminishing fresh water shortage? Seems any plan that includes the advance of humans is doomed to cause more problems. I think the Federal government would get on board if the whole area would be a national nature reserve excluding residential homes. I know CA wouldn't like this as they need more residents for tax income but there still would be tourism

@@indykurt a lot of the area surrounding the sea is already preserved as state and national park land, such as the Sonny Bono wildlife preserve, but much of the wildlife is dying off and/or no longer stopping at the sea along the Pacific flyway for migratory birds, because as the sea dries up, the salinity has reached levels too high for even the tilapia, which for years have tolerated the increasing salinity, to live. The increasingly exposed seabed is releasing toxic dust, resulting in Imperial county having some of the highest rates of respiratory ailments in all of CA. Fresh water’s going to be an increasingly pressing problem for the entire state, and so sources like desalination will become more and more necessary. The Salton Sea was already a big draw in the ‘50s and ‘60s, so it’s not really a new concept… indeed, whole towns were laid out around the sea, with infrastructure like water pipes and power brought to the zoned lots. They just never came to fruition. Too many floods occurred, with the sea having no reliable outlet. The pipeline proposal between Cortez and Salton could help to fix that, by pumping out excess water to keep the level more predictable and workable. California’s inward migration may slow at times, but it’s never stopped, like Florida, so it’s not really a proposal for some theoretical need for more housing, we already need it. The natural resources in the area, namely geothermal energy and lithium, as well as the Southern Pacific RR going through the area, make the area a natural one for industry as well as tourism if the sea is fixed. I’m honestly kinda surprised it hasn’t happened already.

The problem w the Sea of Cortez idea isn’t so much of an issue with state and federal governments working together more so an issue of our federal government not able to reach an agreement with Mexico regarding the aqueduct needed for that to happen. However, it is still being petitioned by the Salton Sea Coalition, and has received thousands of signatures!

@@matthewserrao2926 Yes, totally. In years past it seemed like relations were more conducive to that international crossing of any proposed pipeline, which seems odd to me, but you’re right. That Kerry Morrison of Ecomedia Compass and (former?) mayor of Salton City I think it is, or Desert Shores, what a powerhouse advocate for the people in the area and the sea itself. So many people down there would be easy to steamroll right over due to financial status, health conditions and ability to navigate the labyrinthine agencies involved, but he’s been a persistent voice to be reckoned with, IMHO. I’ve never met him, but I admire him. It’s a really special place down there. I’m partial to Bombay Beach myself, but the people and the setting are just fantastic. Growing up in MA, we used to go to the beach a lot. When I was in the desert in Palm Desert for awhile, I wanted to go down there, and we drove my ‘65 Bug down and I could smell the sea before I saw it… that marshy, salt water smell, and then to see it… a sea so big you can’t see the other side in places. And how friendly the folks of BB were when we stopped in at the Ski Inn- wanting to know all about us and what brought us to town. It really left a mark on me. I hope nothing but the best for them.

No Thank you! Keep Mexico out of this.

I worked there on the side of 111 at the mud pot that is moving and took out the rail line and highway. Very interesting area.

Cracklins

@@jrow84 yeah I never really went too far but I walked around. That's one of the only things i loved about living in San Diego, CA is that theres always stuff to do all year long. Now I live in Mexico and work the oil Fields in south Texas! Puro 956.

They are working on that now, especially Owen's Lake. The current long term drought is the biggest problem.

They are restoring Owens lake, mono lake was saved from LA sucking it dry like Owens.

It's all industrial unless they had something poisonous in the soil already like arsenic. Release of native poisons from soil is a problems in mining operations. They pump water in some operations and it becomes quickly poisonous from things like arsenic that are produced as byproduct.

@@AvengerII Can arsenic be dissolved or even dredged and recycled for use in other regions?

Also mining waste. Else it would just be like the Utah salt flaps. Or the dead sea. It need not be toxic. The salton sea is a dump site. That is why it is toxic. Filling it with sea water or freshwater just hides and dilutes the waste,.

@@nickl5658 ok. So essentially human engineering flo error. Do you think the impact land profiteering moguls had (Chinatown) to control when, where, how much, for who, and for what purposes Napa Valley Dam fresh water resources were let out or held in played a role in Salton eco demise?

@@AndieZ4U2 I read your post several times and have no idea what you’re trying to say. 🤡