1991 | Salton City, California
Salton City came on-line in 1958, to great fanfare with hundreds of miles of paved roads and significant anticipatory infrastructure. Many investors speculated in the 25,000 lots in the plan, a few built. Not long after, the water level in the Salton Sea rose due to unusual precipitation and agricultural runoff, and the promise of seashore living was compromised and inundated. More recently, the sea level dropped considerably due to drought and better management of the human-generated runoff, and the shoreline is drier than ever in modern times.
Every time I have visited this place, I’ve seen far too much or far too little water to fulfill the dreamers’ dreams.
▷ The soil in the Imperial Valley is salty in a shallow basin, so irrigation and plant transpiration leach debilitating salts up to the level of the crop’s roots. Tile drains have been set four feet deep in the soil, extra water is laid on the crops, and the salts are flushed into the drains and routed down into the Salton Sea.