What’s in The Salton Sea and Is It Safe to Swim?

The Salton Sea is a highly saline body of water in California. It was once part of the Gulf of California, but the region south of the Salton Sea dried up and now it is a large lake. It is the largest lake in California. The Salton Sea, the largest lake in the state, was once a thriving body of water, but it has gone through so much that it is now drying up. A combination of runoff from nearby farms and communities, as well as its location, are to blame. 

Because of this catastrophe happening to the Salton Sea, it has caught the eye of various government officials, from local electeds, state legislators, and federal politicians. But the question of the hour is, what is in the Salton Sea? And is it safe to swim? We’ll answer your questions and provide a little bit of history, and some information on the communities around the lake and the wildlife that lives in and nearby. We will also go in-depth on what the government is doing to save the Salton Sea.

Where Is the Salton Sea?

The Salton Sea is located in Southern California, between the counties of Riverside and Imperial. There are small communities around the Salton Sea like Thermal, Mecca, Oasis, North Shore, and Salton City.  Take a look at the map below to see the exact location of the Salton Sea with other large cities in the state of California.

Salton Sea Stats

Before we delve into the Salton Sea and its history, along with the wildlife and communities living in and near the Salton Sea, let’s look at some statistics. 

• Size: 343 square miles
• Depth: between 43-51 feet
• Sea Level: –227 feet

History of the Salton Sea

The Salton Sea did not exist before its creation in 1905. The Colorado River provided the region in what is now the Coachella Valley with fertile land for farming. In 1900, the state government wanted to provide more water to the surrounding agricultural lands and so started to build an irrigation canal. However, officials made slits in the Colorado River to increase water flow, and that along with floods caused a canal break. This created a large body of water in the Salton Basic, and voila: the Salton Sea! 

Because of its location, the Salton Sea would have dried up but the nearby farming communities would send their runoff water waste into the lake. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Salton Sea created beach communities that were popular spots for people to go fishing, tanning, and relaxing. Unfortunately, the water runoff started to kill the wildlife there, and soon enough, the resort communities popular in the decades before started to slowly get abandoned. Today, the Salton Sea is a toxic-ridden lake that is evaporating at a rapid pace, endangering the communities around it.

Wildlife in the Salton Sea

A diverse amount of wildlife lived near or in the Salton Sea, which included many species of fish like tilapia, European carp, and western mosquitofish. Today, 97% of all fish are completely gone. When it comes to birds, brown and white pelicans, as well as eared grebes used to frequent the Salton Sea. Unfortunately, because of the fish population dying off in recent years, the bird numbers have decreased substantially. Some of them have died from eating the toxic fish, and others, like humans, have abandoned where they used to live or visit.

Communities Around the Salton Sea

Several communities live near or around the Salton Sea. In fact, some of them are thriving communities. The beach areas were once thriving beaches with a lot of tourism, but some of them are now abandoned or have very few people passing by. The 1980s brought in a new era in the Salton Sea that made many of these “beach” communities useless. Bombay Beach, for example, was a popular hotspot but is now a ghost town because of the Salton Sea’s salinity and the droughts that destroyed the lake’s ecosystem.

The other communities near the Salton Sea include Thermal, Mecca, Oasis, North Shore, and Salton City. These towns are surrounded by agricultural land, which is worked by the residents of the town. The makeup of these communities is usually first or second-generation Latinos, proud to call this region home. However, it is common to find low-income residents, poverty, and lower graduation rates. Often these communities live near environmentally hazardous areas, which include the Salton Sea.

Is it Safe to Swim in the Salton Sea?

This is the big question and the simple answer is: NO. But let’s delve more into the situation and problem that is the Salton Sea. Because of all the agricultural land that surrounds the Salton Sea, their drainage has to go somewhere. These landowners decided to send their water waste into the Salton Sea. All the hazardous chemicals — toxic algae, lithium, arsenic, selenium, and phosphorus — that are in the lake have spread everywhere, which is why it’s not safe to swim. Fortunately, there has been less runoff because of water technology advances in recent years.

But there’s a more pressing problem that is coming to light. Because of the lake’s location, which is in the Sonoran Desert, and the fact that there is less water runoff from the agricultural lands, the lake is drying up. And because the lake has no outlet, the water is evaporating along with the hazardous chemicals. Arsenic, selenium, and all of these toxic chemicals are evaporating into the air, and people living near the lake are breathing this toxicity.

Proposed Legislation

Political leaders noticed these pressing problems and have gotten together — both from the state level and federal levels — to discuss what they can do to solve the issue. Earlier in 2023, District 18 State Senator Steve Padilla, who has represented these communities since getting elected to the seat in 2022, put forth a bill that would establish a Salton Sea Conservancy.

In a press release from his office, Senator Padilla stated, “The Salton Sea is one of the most pressing environmental justice issues facing California. The toxic dust blown off of the dry lakebed continues to choke communities surrounding the Salton Sea region, negatively impacting the health of generations of some of the most vulnerable Californians…”

This Conservancy will ensure the Salton Sea gets the attention it deserves to swiftly preserve the lake, protect the surrounding communities’ health, and increase the ecological environment and biodiversity of the Salton Sea region. Let’s hope the future is bright because as the Salton Sea dries up more rapidly because of climate change, the ones that will suffer the most will be the surrounding wildlife and the communities living in the region.

Fun Facts About the Salton Sea

• You can travel faster on the Salton Sea than any other body of water in the US because the salt’s consistency makes boats more buoyant. 
• Water flows into the Salton Sea from three rivers — the Alamo, the Whitewater, and the New Rivers — but nothing flows out of the sea, which means the way it loses water is through evaporation.
• At one point before the mid-1980s, the Salton Sea State Park had more visitors than Yosemite. 
• The Salton Sea is the second-lowest elevation in California. The lowest elevation is Death Valley.
• There is a whopping 500 tons of salt in the Salton Sea!

Conclusion

And there you have it, the Salton Sea is filled with toxic chemicals that have been evaporating along with the lake, creating a public health crisis in the surrounding areas. The Salton Sea is unequivocally not safe to swim, either. The wildlife living in the lake has largely left or died. What needs to happen now is a joint effort from federal, state, and local officials to tackle this problem and ensure it does not get worse.