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The Salton Sea. an Eco-Biography of California's Largest Lake

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The Salton Sea. an Eco-Biography of California's Largest Lake The Salton Sea. An Eco-Biography of California’s Largest Lake Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Philosophie an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München vorgelegt von Marta Niepytalska aus Warschau, Polen 2021 Referent: Prof. Dr. Christof Mauch 1. Korreferent: Prof. Dr. Uwe Lübken, 2. Korreferent: Prof. Dr. Gordon Winder Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 8. Juli 2019 2 CONTENTS Map of the Salton Sea Region 4 Map of the Salton Sea 5 Introduction 6 I. The Birth of the Sea 19 II. Discovering Aquatic Nature 56 III. California’s Irrigated Paradise 97 IV. The Sea Goes to War 140 V. Beaches of Leisure 166 VI. Big Fish–Big Business 201 VII. Toxic Lands 229 Outlook: Salt in a Wound 272 Bibliography 285 Introductory image by Aleksandr Masalov Maps created by Djordje Slavkovic 3 4 5 Introduction A Sea of Paradox ______________________________________ In today’s California, the Salton Sea is a little-known landmark with few visitors to its shores. Yet those visitors who do know it often develop a fascination with this body of water, and for good reason. The Sea rests in a basin that was once filled by a giant prehistoric inland sea, known as Lake Cahuilla. The modern-day Sea, formed in the beginning of the twentieth century, was a result of an engineering disaster. Within a few decades, it became a popular leisure hotspot, but the thriving tourist oasis turned into a nightmare as the ecological crises of the Sea escalated. Agricultural runoff has fed the Salton Sea throughout this modern time with conflicting outcomes: It has stopped the Sea from evaporating yet, at the same time, allowed incredibly high amounts of minerals to accumulate in its depths. As a result, the Sea has become much saltier than the oceans. But what else does the Salton Sea have to tell its visitors? And why, in particular, would an environmental historian be intrigued by the Sea? For over one hundred years, humans have tried to tame or adjust the forces of nature at the Salton Sea. They redirected one of the most unpredictable currents of the North American continent, the Colorado River, and introduced new fishes to the Sea’s waters and new plants to its surroundings. And they have continued to transform the Sea in order to adapt it to human needs. As a result of those struggles, the Salton Sea became a place of paradox. It is a place of hope but also a place of loneliness, of helplessness and of ignorance. It is a spot where dreams came true only to be followed by horrifying nightmares. It is a beautiful oasis, but at the same time, it is filthy and bleak. It is an ecosystem that is constantly dying and simultaneously reviving itself. The Sea kills the fishes it carries, yet it constitutes an ecosystem so productive that even though millions of fish die and rot every year, there are more and more fishes. Today, the Sea suffers from bad health, 6 with an unflattering reputation among humans of a failed utopia, yet one of a welcoming sanctuary for hundreds of bird species. The Sea is a mysterious place. In its waters, a curious interplay developed between the aquatic species and the variety of microbial growth. Its past conveys a time when people danced on its shores and fishes danced on its surface. Its southern shores became host to underground volcanoes and mud geysers, and in the southwest, an army test site emerged, where secret military experiments contributed to the development of the atomic bomb. And yet other spots reveal a history of disappointments, such as the failed attempt to repeat the success of Palm Springs on the Sea’s western shore. Confronted with this intense interplay between culture and nature, it seems only natural for an environmental historian to develop a fascination with the Salton Sea. Why an Eco-Biography of the Salton Sea? ______________________________________ This study is an eco-biography of the Salton Sea, focusing on the period between 1905 and 1977. The Salton Sink remains a regional focus. This geographical sink is located in southeastern California, in the Colorado Desert. The Sea rests in the sink’s lowest elevations while the majority of the sink’s remaining surface is occupied by the Imperial and Coachella Valleys. With a surface area of 347 square miles or 900 square kilometers and a volume of over 6 million-acre feet (as registered in 2018), the Salton Sea is the biggest lake in California, both by area and by volume. The Sea’s southernmost point is located 30 miles from the U.S.–Mexican border, and the basin that it spreads across straddles the United States and Mexico.1 1 U. S. Department of the Interior, U.S Geological Survey, State of the Salton Sea: A Science and Monitoring Meeting of Scientists for the Salton Sea, Open-File Report 2017–1005, by Douglas A. Barnum, Timothy Bradley, Michael Cohen, Bruce Wilcox, and Gregor Yanega, (Reston, VA: U.S. Geological Survey 2017), 1-3, https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2017/1005/ofr20171005.pdf; U.S Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Restoration of the Salton Sea, Volume 1: Evaluation of the Alternatives, December 2007, 1-3, https://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/saltnsea/finalreport/Vol1/Chp1.pdf. 7 The concept of an eco-biography derives from Mark Cioc’s study of the Rhine River, entitled The Rhine: An Eco-Biography, 1815-2000. Cioc, an environmental historian, approaches the Rhine in a way that is personal, viewing it as a living being, and seeks to portray both the history of the river’s environmental decline and the efforts made toward its restoration. The environmental historian Thomas Lekan describes Cioc’s study as a “cautionary tale about the unforeseen consequences of the Enlightenment's belief in the need to ‘improve’ natural systems to suit human economic need.”2 It is this compelling focus on human beliefs and interests and their impact on an ecosystem that has strongly influenced the approach of this study.3 Faithful to the approach of an eco-biography, this study provides an account of the Sea’s life, focusing on a specific stage of its life (1905-1977). The year 1905 marked the beginning of the two-year-long flood that created the modern Salton Sea, while 1977 was the end of a two-year period in which tropical storms devastated the region. And in keeping with a biographical account, the Salton Sea is perceived as a living presence and referred to as the Sea, as if referring to a personal name. But why is the approach of eco- biography particularly useful in the case of the Salton Sea? In taking this approach, this study investigates the Sea as a living organism comprising both cultural (human) and ecological (natural) actors. It focuses on the interconnection between nature and human actors, where the latter are defined by their interests. Furthermore, this study attempts to include a variety of factors that define and shape a life. For instance, every life has a beginning, and in the case of the Salton Sea, it originates from its parent, the Colorado River. Moreover, this study recognizes that each life, including the life of an ecosystem, is full of potential but is, at the same time, impaired by hardship, including sickness and imbalance. The Sea, as this study discusses, 2 Thomas Lekan, “Lekan on Cioc, 'The Rhine: An Eco-Biography, 1815-2000,'” H-German, H-Net Reviews, July 2003, accessed January 14 2019, https://networks.h- net.org/node/35008/reviews/43707 /lekan-cioc-rhine-eco-biography-1815-2000. 3 Mark Cioc, The Rhine: An Eco-Biography, 1815-2000 (Seattle, Wash.: University of Washington Press, 2006). 8 is a life abundant in paradox and coincidence, and a life subject to confusing expectations. And the goal of this study is to provide an account of that life, of when the Sea thrived and when it suffered ecologically from stress and strain, or even illness. Thus this study is also an eco-biography. It describes a stage in the life of an ecosystem that emerges and undergoes constant transformations. The ecosystem is understood as a system which encompasses “both the organic and inorganic elements of nature bound together in a single place, all in active, reciprocating relationship.”4 Just as a human body consists of different body parts and millions of microbes, the ecosystem of the Salton Sea consists of numerous components, including the water, the soils underneath it, the plants that surround it, and the billions of inhabitants such as birds, fishes, arthropods, and microbes. Moreover, it is strongly interconnected with the cultural elements, including human settlements and the agricultural or warfare industries. Human Desire and Nature’s Responses ______________________________________ This eco-biography places a strong emphasis on tensions between the history of state administrations and engineering projects and the loss in biodiversity at the Salton Sea. It shows that those changes that take place very rapidly can turn a “lucky” and “privileged” place into a damaged and forgotten landscape. This study serves as evidence that environmental responsibility is often overshadowed or even excluded by hunger for profit. Furthermore, it demonstrates that short periods of success, prosperity, and a sense of achievement are followed by large-scale losses.5 The questions posed by this study relate mainly to the human desire for predictability (the desire to control) and its unintended consequences, and to 4 Carolyn Merchant, ed., Major Problems in American Environmental History (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993); Donald Worster, “Appendix: Doing Environmental History,” in The Ends of the Earth: Perspectives on Modern Environmental History, eds.
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