November 10th - November 15th, 2025
The Salton Sea is anomalously odd. Initial wellings of apocalyptic wonder recede rapidly into bold confrontation with wicked problems of scale. Anarchic communities of free-living free-spirits are short removed from beachfront communities adorned with waterless Yacht Clubs, where Hollywood’s hotshots once indulged in the quaint beauty of California’s largest lake. A brief drive in any landward direction will unfold a greening desert, where 977,700,000,000 gallons of Colorado River Water (give or take) are used to irrigate the fields that produce vast quantities of alfalfa and the majority of the nations winter produce.
A closed and constantly evaporating basin, the Salton Sea continues to concentrate heavy metals, fertilizer runoff, toxic bacteria, and salt. Increased efficiency in farming practices decreases Salton Sea inflows, unveiling more exposed lakebed. Child asthma rates south of the Salton Sea hover around 35%, 25% above the national average. Competing and incompatible interests seem to plague the sea with stagnancy.