Shimmering under the bright Southern California sun is California's largest inland lake, the Salton Sea. A tremendous resource for people and wildlife in the Imperial and Coachella valleys, this desert jewel serves as an international resource for the millions of migratory water birds that use it as a major stop over as they travel along the Pacific Flyway. The abundance and diversity of the more than 400 species of birds that live at and visit the Sea each year has encouraged a significant following of avid birders from throughout the world.

The Sea supports five endangered species and for many years sports enthusiasts visited the Sea for its once highly productive sport fishery. Local communities and booming agricultural interests also depend upon the Sea.

The health of the Salton Sea faces threats from many sources. The major threat is the decrease in the amount of water that flows into the Sea. Each year, this shallow desert lake evaporates significantly under the hot sun and as less water flows into the Sea, it continues to shrink. The water that sustains the Sea is mostly irrigation runoff from Imperial Valley agricultural fields, which carry salt, selenium, phosphates and other nutrients. Since the Sea lacks an outlet, these contaminants concentrate in the Sea, stressing the fish and invertebrates that live there.

In recent years the Salton Sea has suffered from increasing salinity and selenium, contamination from agricultural and urban sources, wildlife disease outbreaks, and large die-offs of waterbirds and fish. Legislation calls for the State of California to use less Colorado River water and that means the water flowing to the Sea will decrease.

By Spring 2007, the state must come up with a plan to restore the Sea and unless a viable ecoystem restoration plan is implemented, the demise of the Sea is inevitable.

The Imperial and Coachella Valleys, which surround the Salton Sea, have witnessed high rates of development and population growth in recent years. As the Sea shrinks, it will create major air quality problems for these areas. More than 65 square miles of the Sea's lakes will be exposed as it shrinks during the coming years. With the strong winds that regularly blow across the region, the lakebed could pose a significant risk to public health. Other exposed lakebeds, in less populated regions, have required hundreds of million of dollars in clean-up efforts.

With more than 90% of Californiaís critical wetland habitat wiped out, millions of birds from throughout the Western Hemisphere depend upon the Sea as a vital stopover on the Pacific Flyway. Without it many birds, including endangered and threatened species, will disappear forever. The endangered pupfish also calls the Salton Sea its home.

When the level of the Sea drops, the shoreline may be located up to a mile away from the local communities that surround the sea. The potential economic and health impacts would devastate their communities.

V. Etyemezian Dr. Vic Etyemezian works with a PI-SWIRL device to test soils on exposed salty playa at the Salton Sea.

Recent studies show that exposed Salton Sea shoreline will likely impact air quality as the Sea recedes.

As the Salton Sea’s water level drops in coming years, approximately half of the lakebed that is exposed may cause major air quality problems for Salton Sea, Imperial and Coachella communities if the exposed lakebed is not managed effectively with control measures, according to recent studies from the Desert Research Institute and the United States Geological Survey.

The studies show that where water has already receded around the Sea, the surface areas contain a salty mix of sediments that can change from a hardened salt crust to a fluffy soft layer of dust depending upon the season.

A. Kalin Dust blows from the exposed shoreline on the south end of the sea.

Exposed sediments could elevate PM-10 levels throughout the region.

Almost 120,000 acres of Salton Sea lakebed could be exposed as inflows to the Sea decrease in future years. Based on the studies, local communities may be affected by 60,000 potentially dust-blowing acres, which will cause PM-10 levels to rise.

The City of Los Angeles' water diversions caused about 45,000 acres to be exposed at Owens Lake, located in a similar desert environment, and by the end of this year approximately 30,000 acres must be controlled by the region’s local air control district.

PM-10 levels at Owens Lake can be 100 times greater than the federal standard and 300 times greater than the state standard. Even if the peak 24-hour concentrations at the Salton Sea are only a fraction as bad as Owens Lake, the levels could still be significantly higher than the state and federal standards, threatening public health. Currently, the Imperial and Coachella Valleys do not meet existing standards for PM-10 levels.

PM-10 is very fine dust that lodges deep into the lungs and causes health problems, including asthma. The California Air Resources Board in consultation with the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has concluded that the potential impacts from exposure to particulate matter (PM) air pollution are significant. Health effects associated with PM exposure include premature mortality, increased hospital admissions for cardiopulmonary causes, acute and chronic bronchitis, asthma attacks and emergency room visits, respiratory symptoms and days with some restriction in activity. These adverse health affects have been primarily reported in infants, children, the elderly and those with preexisting cardiopulmonary disease.

What can be done to control the air quality problems of the Sea’s exposed acres?

An advisory committee of federal, state, local and advocacy stakeholders, who is working on the Sea’s restoration plan, voted unanimously to allocate a portion of water flowing into the sea to keep the dust from blowing throughout the region. Each of the State of California’s alternative infrastructure water management plans that are outlined in its PEIR allocate one acre foot per acre per year for 50 percent of each of the plan’s exposed areas. For the other areas of exposed shoreline, the restoration team will assume that these areas will either not emit dust or could be controlled with such measures as gravel cover and hardened salt crusts.