Since then salt levels have concentrated in the landlocked sea, forcing oxygen out of the water and causing the die-off of millions of fish each year. The ones that survive are hazardous to consume due to high levels of selenium and other toxins from pesticide runoff. Once the water became poisonous the once thriving recreation area became a series of ghost towns.
Property values plummeted, and abandoned sites began to rot along the sea shores. Bombay Beach is located on the eastern shore of the sea, just off Highway At feet below sea level, it is considered the lowest community in the United States. There are households, two convenient stores, and one bar. There are two dogs for every person and a golf cart in every driveway. The landscape is barren, but the shrinking population is still full of life for now. An estimated one million people visit the Salton Sea each year but the non-profit Pacific Institute estimates that, without intervention, the surface area of the lake will shrink to square miles by , the salinity level will triple, and the fish will disappear within the next decade.
Not just here — everywhere. At the heart of the issue are groups of competing stakeholders: farmers fighting for less regulation, public officials constrained by budgets and constituencies and the , primarily poor and Latino residents of Imperial County.
Battle has already ensued over a flag program intended to help local schools monitor daily air quality, and local youth have begun to mobilize and advocate for their communities. What remains to be seen is whether the promised collaboration between stakeholders will yield a solution for the impending public health emergency as residents continue to inhale toxic air on a daily basis. She herself has allergies, and her late father, who made his living on a small farm, often said he was allergic to everything he grew.
Meanwhile, her adult children have moved out of the Imperial Valley, and limit their trips back home because the polluted air aggravates their allergies. Johnson partially filled the void with a school full of children, whom she worries about on a daily basis. Her group is analyzing the dust around the Salton Sea to understand exactly what it contains and how far it travels. They also conduct health surveys in local schools, including Westmorland Union Elementary, to assess how best to intervene and treat asthmatic children.
Agriculture also employs nearly one-third of wage workers in the area. In a troubling conundrum, the community is financially bound to an industry that may also be making people sick through dust emissions. On a Friday morning in late February, Johnson looked up from her desk to see plumes of black smoke rising from a nearby farm.
She started to panic, thinking of the 65 children at her school who suffer from asthma. Johnson picked up the phone and dialed Esther Bejarano, an educator from Comite Civico del Valle CCV , a local advocacy group focused on environmental justice issues. While agricultural burning is legal in the area, each quadrant of the valley is restricted to torching acres per day, and must adhere to scheduling and permitting laws. Combined with airborne dust, burning fields can exacerbate asthma and even cause breathing problems in healthy people.
More: Agencies urge California water board to approve Salton Sea agreement. Bejarano has two young children with asthma, and constantly worries about their well-being, which she cites as a major motivation for her work with CCV.
They come and take advantage of us. She feels that the APCD often favors agricultural giants and factories over the health of farm workers and families in the area. Now close to tears, Bejarano recounted the history of the school flag program: the APCD partnered with the American Lung Association in , at which point they delivered green, orange and yellow flags to a handful of nearby schools.
The intention was for schools to monitor air quality internally, post the appropriate flag color based on current conditions and adjust student activity accordingly. Kids can play freely on green days, but asthmatic children must stay inside when the flag is yellow. Even healthy students modify their outdoor activities, for example walking instead of running. On orange days, everyone stays inside. Bejarano says the APCD barely scratched the surface in their halfhearted attempt to implement the flag program.
Bejarano and her colleagues visit schools to educate staff members about airborne dust particles, drive by to check that flags are posted correctly and provide replacement materials as needed.
State authorities announced a plan last year to restore some of the lake, the first phase of a long-promised rescue. Skeptics fear it will never happen. The Bombay Beach Biennale — which despite the name has taken place each year — riffs on its environs. The festival asked artists to imagine the future that did not happen.
This applies to her exhibit: thieves stole the benches and incense and other artifacts, leaving the dream house somewhat forlorn. He has bought several abandoned lots and brings in artists to transform them. He arrived last week at the wheel of an open-top Mercedes playing Bizet. The appeal was not property but experience, he said. Wacko, the refusenik, was not impressed. Down here they get away with it. In a forgotten town by the Salton Sea, newcomers build a bohemian dream.
Melody Sample, an artist, built an installation as part of the Bombay Beach Biennale, an art festival in town. Attack of the giant tumbleweed: California town swamped in invasion. Read more. Reuse this content.
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