Troubled Waters: Salton Sea Project Part 1 - Paradise Lost

[Music] we have reported on the environmental crisis looming at the salton sea for years it's shrinking and it's continuing to become a bigger and bigger problem the longer it's neglected but as unhealthy as it is today it was not always this way in part one of troubled waters the salton sea project paradise lost news channel 3's angela chen takes us through the incredible history of the lake to the turning point when it all started to collapse [Music] let me tell you a story of ancient waters of buried treasure of death and decay and above all a fight for the future all at california's forgotten lake it wasn't always like this along the shoreline of the salton sea abandoned homes silent streets a past life left for dead what other beach in california feels this desolate like you've reached the end of the world these days lakeside communities like bombay beach languish a shadow of its former self [Music] but in the 1960s people could not get enough of the pleasures at the salton sea a short drive south of palm springs you found a true desert oasis we could pack a lunch we could fish when it got too warm would dad say okay kids you know it's getting warm let's jump out and we'll go water skiing a palm springs with water here's where you can find the good life in the sun salton city starts to be part of a real estate craze and there's another yacht club at salton city they start building a pga golf course out there old hollywood flocked to its shores with the likes of frank sinatra and the beach boys partying at the lake it was the glamorous place to see and be seen with carp says hundreds of thousands crowding the area fishing water skiing and boat racing rained on high earning the lake the nickname the fastest body of water there's just so much excitement you know we'd have a picnic out there and we'd have our binoculars and we'd be watching the boat races and fish and we just had a great time but as we know it would not come to last all the more devastating because of the lake's extraordinary beginnings what you see today of the salton sea is only the latest reincarnation in past lives the lake known as ancient lake kawia has dried up and refilled with colorado river flood waters many times over thousands of years the current sultan sees maximum depth of somewhere around 43 feet and historically the ancient lake was sometimes over 100 feet deep the writing is on the wall that sharp water line you see on the mountains just opposite of desert shores shows just how high the salton sea used to be at one point historical records show the salton sea was connected to the ocean it's in one of these past lives in the 1600s that the legend of the lost ship of the desert is born the lost uh pearl ship of juan de turber who was a spanish explorer um who was on an expedition to gather pearls and his boat supposedly had gems on it and it's in 1615 that he's exploring the gulf of california and as the story goes the tides and the conditions were just right that e turbine and his crew were able to somehow ride into lake kawia and that they explored lake kuya for a few days to then only find themselves landlocked and they're now they're now stuck they can't get back out to the gulf of california and they have no other choice but to abandon their ship and go back on foot to the closest spanish settlement leaving behind their pearls and gems and whatever else to get on board and over the decades there have been reported citing the newspapers of a viking mast here a gold cross there there's been different people that have said they have found these these things you know a little treasure chest but of course the truth remains buried for most of the 1800s as far as records show the salton sea was mostly a dried up lake bed so how did this massive lake as we know it today come to be well it was because of a mistake in the early 1900s when the ambitions and ego of one man shaped california's largest lake this really begins with a man named charles rockwood and rockwood he had this dream of bringing the colorado river to the colorado desert in california to try to expand agriculture rockwood joined by george chafee an engineer built canals to connect water from the colorado river to farmland but the best laid plans often get summed and in 1905 a flood swelled the colorado overwhelmed the canal and burst with waves of water rushing into the salton sink forming the lake as we know it today while the beauty above can transfix the u.s military relished the salton sea for its body underneath a test base was set up at the salton sea in 1942 for world war ii used for bombing range operations and rocket development and testing jet engine propellant mixtures to this day the lake hides vast secrets below the navy confirms at least 20 warplanes from wildcats to avengers crashed into these waters with 36 men calling this lake their grave any plane found in the salton sea is united states property and better left untouched especially because of the risk of unexploded bombs the navy tells us it abandoned the base in 1995 but to this day some of those planes and bodies are still trapped down there in the 70s people were still high on the glittering appeal to live lakeside they actually start to grid streets and put in plumbing so they have lots ready to go but unfortunately people people kind of oversold and even though you have this moment of great popularity in this this booming time it starts to come to an end it all starts to fall apart major flooding in the 70s and 80s houses get swallowed and neighborhoods are unlivable [Music] agricultural runoff also pours into the lake and at one point there's too much water in the salton sea it's in 1985 that the health department comes out to the salton scene conducts a study and they determine that the fish are unsafe to eat they put up no fishing signs in 85. the the tourist industry the kind of heyday of old hollywood has is gone with no fresh water flowing into the lake remember it's just water sitting in a sink and our 120 degree summer heat that water evaporates rapidly leaving behind a lake that's almost twice as salty as the pacific ocean dead fish pile up bird bodies bury the beaches the shoreline starts to recede opening up exposed lake bed full of chemicals and pesticides from the farm water runoff and decades of doing very little about it by the government by the local tribe by the water districts who are all landowners here have led us here to a 2021 salton sea that has lost more than 10 percent of its water since 2003. if we continue down this path and nothing major is done this is the projected future we'll face the lake will continue to shrink and as it does more playa is exposed what's left of the wildlife will die off and that toxic dust will spread across the coachella valley san bernardino and l.a counties and more southern california for potentially millions of people is going to be a very unpleasant and unhealthy place to live for those impoverished living around the salton sea it already is cries for help drowned out by years of lip service from those in power at the salton sea angela chen newschannel three and as you just pointed out getting anything major accomplished at the salton sea has been a struggle for decades in the next segment of troubled waters airing next wednesday night angela chin will take a look at the environmental and health crisis spilling over from the salton sea we want to thank two groups on this we received financial support and feedback from the usc annenberg center for health journalism impact fund to report this story the project also funded by a grant from the society of environmental journalists and for more on our four-part series head to our website kesq.com

Channel: KESQ News Channel 3

Views: 9,789

Keywords: news

Id: VOComGCpGhA

Length: 8min 57sec (537 seconds)

Published: Thu May 06 2021