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#1
07-30-2012, 06:31 AM
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Just When You Thought California Couldn't Get Crazier!
A developer wants to turn the Salton Sea into a luxury resort area!
Link:http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/201...Salton-12.html Imagine-luxury condos and homes-next to a drying-up salt lake that stinks of dead fish! I was always fascinated by the Salton Sea-in the 1950's it was a popular vacation spot. Now it resembles popular depictions of Hell. For you SoCal Dopers-would you ever seriously consider living there? And where is the money coming from? Suppose enough water became available to replenish the Salton Sea-and the fishing recovered-would it ever become a popular resort place again? 
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#2
07-30-2012, 11:18 AM
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They've been wanting to do something like this for years. Mr. Neville's grandfather got snookered into buying property there a long time ago as an investment. It never went up in value. (Mr. Neville's grandfather was a great guy, but not someone you should have taken investment advice from) There are presumably other people who did the same and would like to make back their money.
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#3
07-30-2012, 11:23 AM
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Show a developer an undeveloped space and he wants to put something there no matter how ill-conceived it may be.
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#4
07-30-2012, 11:30 AM
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Really. Out here in suburbia, developers have never stopped building houses in whatever vacant lots they could find, despite the fact that, until just a couple of months ago, nobody was buying them.
I can't imagine how much money was lost like this.
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#5
07-30-2012, 11:48 AM
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Only worth it if they can get the water to fill it back up again. Given that if they do NOT fill it up, the dried up chemicals, etc. will cause a nasty set of dust storms - there is an assumption that someone will break down and get more water into it.
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#6
07-30-2012, 11:52 AM
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The question is "from where?" There isn't going to be another mega-flood of the Colorado River, which is what caused the Salton Sea in the first place. The rivers that feed it can't keep up with evaporation, and I don't think there are enough Desani bottles in the world to make a difference.
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#7
07-30-2012, 11:55 AM
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Quote from the slide show:
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#9
07-30-2012, 02:12 PM
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And won't the giant prehistoric reconstituted man-eating snails put a damper on things? I can see them seriously depressing property values SPOILER:
Last edited by CalMeacham; 07-30-2012 at 02:13 PM.
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#10
07-30-2012, 02:16 PM
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#11
07-31-2012, 06:45 PM
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Why Not Save The Salton Sea?
I was reading up on the tragic story-and these developers actually have a good idea-IF the State and Federal Governments were to save the dying Salton Sea.
Why not divert the Colorado River into the sea, in the winter months? The inflow of fresh water would drop the salinity and restore the fish population. Actually, increasing the size of the sea would be a good idea-it could be a hugely productive fishery, if the fish populations could be re-established. The commercial fishery could be huge-and it would be easy to fish. Plus , the area is the beast in the continent for solar energy. So what I thought was crazy, actually has a lot of potential. 
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#12
08-01-2012, 02:26 PM
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#15
08-01-2012, 06:02 PM
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#17
08-01-2012, 06:43 PM
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#18
08-01-2012, 06:54 PM
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Somewhere I read that there is taxpayer money behind this project. Why are California tax payers handing money over to a developer to build this thing on a lake that is located at a cluster of faults that have been shown to get more unstable as water levels rise? I know you guys are probably under "no open burning" rules from drought, but you could at least just toss the money into closed fireplaces.
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#19
08-01-2012, 07:00 PM
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I'm about 40 miles from it, and always want to go photograph it. It's just really interesting, as it's decaying away. There's some movie named The Salton Sea, and I'll need to find it some day. Judging from police reports, the area is pretty much only populated by stubborn, aint-gonna-move'ers and transients. We have a good number of transient 'cities' within a couple hundred miles, some of them almost as odd as Salton. I am thinking maybe people just want it cleaned up to get rid of the crime.
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#20
08-06-2012, 07:57 AM
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I actually found a good book in my library, about the history of the Salton Sea.It is called "Salt Dreams" , by William deBuys. Back in 1958, a SoCal real estate developer bought 190,000 acres of land (for about $5.00/acre). He then promoted his development-it was going to be the next "Palm Springs". The eager customers/dupes paid $3600 for a house lot. The developed (M. Penn Philips), made a ton of money-but his development never got built. The problem was that the sea kept rising and falling-and the Imperial Valley (in summer) has long stretches of >110 degree F days.
So it looks like history is repeating itself-except it isn't 1958, and we are in the middle of a depression. I do think it would be worth saving the Salton Sea-heck, it would cost chump change, compared to what were pissing away in Afghanistan.
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#21
08-06-2012, 08:21 AM
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 Good lord get the tire iron.
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#23
10-30-2012, 06:52 PM
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I think the reasonable way to save the Salton Sea is to simply convert it into a large, artificial lagoon...thingy, fed by the Pacific.
This will, naturally, require excavating an artificial inlet from the ocean. Luckily, as was demonstrated by testing during the 60s, using dozens of hydrogen bombs to do the digging should do the trick.
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#24
10-30-2012, 06:54 PM
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It would appear that a severely economically depressed area got some money to restore an abandoned and vandalized, classic 50s-era yacht club for use as a history museum. It's less than an hour's drive from Palm Springs, so there's even a fair chance it will draw some tourist traffic and dollars.
I have a hard time seeing a problem with that.
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#25
10-31-2012, 09:56 AM
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#26
10-31-2012, 11:01 AM
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Nah, the one I'm thinking of is a documentary. And I'm finding lots of those when I google around, but not the one I'm thinking of. Still, plenty to watch, as it's an interesting subject. It's been an on-going battle between various governmental agencies as to who is gonna have to fix the place, because it's turning into a dangerous place. Thousands and thousands of dead fish, chemicals off-gassing into the air; it's become a public hazard, really. So I could see the gov't being really happy about anyone who'd take a shot at cleaning even part of it up, 'cause there's no THERE there for money to be wasted on. And water...I don't know. I'm sure that's been a topic of discussion for decades, as there is no such thing as 'extra water' at any time of year. Anything that could be 'diverted' from anywhere would be used for agriculture, which is in full swing year round, but even more so in the winter.
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#27
10-31-2012, 11:11 AM
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Did find a good article though.
http://www.hcn.org/issues/365/17542 It does bring up some good points. I moved here to The Salad Bowl <Imperial Valley> about 4 years ago. I have lived in a variety of climates, but never have I lived anywhere with so many people allergic to so many things. EVERYONE HAS ALLERGIES. Seriously, EVERYBODY. And I don't have numbers, but it seems to me that a staggeringly large percentage of kids have asthma and allergy problems; it's not unusual at ALL for kids to be on Benadryl for months at a time. It's...weird. The article brings up a good reason why this might be in good part because of the winds shifting all of this salty, acrid, poisonous dust out of the drying lake bed into the Valley. And it will only get worse; the speculation is that it can and will eventually be bad enough to ruin crops. So...someone's gotta do something. But no one's got the money, least of all California. Last edited by Taomist; 10-31-2012 at 11:16 AM.
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#28
10-31-2012, 05:05 PM
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Interesting film. I don't think it's pure documentary, but I enjoyed it all the same.
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#29
10-31-2012, 07:46 PM
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Might you be thinking of this one: Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea? It's very good. I hadn't heard of the Salton Sea before I saw it some years ago.
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#31
10-31-2012, 08:13 PM
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With the recent spate of earthquakes in the area and yes the smell of a fish die off, I actually did some looking into that area of California. The best and worse of my research came to this point, its a hot spot with 5 volcanic buttes in the close area and the fish kill may have been caused by a gas release under the Salton Sea. The idea of a development in the area needs to have scientists give the okaydoke on this, I wouldn't if you ask me. The fact that obsidian, a type of volcanic rock is found all over the area, and an undefined area of possible earthquake activity, ok its California, and ajcent to the navy bombing range, sounds like a great place to retire.
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#32
10-31-2012, 10:03 PM
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If anyone's keeping a list of movies set in the area, add:
Little Birds. It's a small indie teenage runaway movie about two friends, played by Juno Temple and Kay Panabaker, who live there and are going out of their minds with boredom. When they meet some guys visiting from LA they decide to follow them back. Not a good idea. It also stars Leslie Mann as Juno's partygirl mom, and Kate Bosworth as Juno's beleaguered aunt. Even though the movie shifts to Los Angeles, most of it takes place where they live on the Salton Sea. I saw it on the big screen and was shaking my head in amazement at the devastation and stark rawness of the area. I certainly didn't blame these girls for wanting to get away.
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#33
11-01-2012, 11:31 PM
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I went to The Salton Sea about ten years ago for a TV shoot. It's a weird area populated by some weird people.
Plagues and Pleasures on The Salton Sea is a good documentary. It's also near this place: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvation_Mountain
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#35
11-02-2012, 12:27 AM
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#36
11-02-2012, 01:21 AM
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I've also seen the Val Kilmer movie, The Salton Sea, that someone else mentioned. It's not bad.
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#38
11-02-2012, 07:53 AM
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I visited that sea once, and hope to again.
No, on second thought, let's not go to the Salton sea. 'Tis a smelly place.
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#39
11-02-2012, 08:25 AM
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Walk for your Lives!!!
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#40
11-02-2012, 10:09 AM
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#41
11-02-2012, 10:16 AM
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The southern tip of the "Sea" used to be a great birding spot. I was overflown by thousands of snow geese once and it was amazing (and I didn't get pooped on, which was even more amazing.)
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#42
11-02-2012, 10:21 AM
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Sorta related Question: Great Salt Lake?
Since the Salton Sea resembles Great Salt lake (in some respects), I have a question for SLC Dopers-was the Great Salt Lake ever developed as a resort area? With seaside condos, marinas, amusements, etc? Why not?
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#43
11-02-2012, 10:34 AM
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There are parts that were, most notably the Saltair pavilion, which has been rebuilt multiple times. When I first got there in 1983 I found it surrounded by water on all sides. It had been built well back from the Lake, but that year they had torrential rains, and the lake swelled up until it threatened the building.
"When do the waters go down?" I asked. "You tell us," they replied. Within a year the lake swallowed up the adjacent water slide, and overflowed the expensive wood dance floor. I don't know if they had showers there, but that's something that would be essential. Once you get out of the Salt Lake, the saturated solution immediately starts evporating, and it leaves a deposit of salt on every body hair, and you can't wait to get it off. The times I bathed in the Lake, I was nowhere near any kind of washing facility, and fervently wanted to wash off.
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#44
11-02-2012, 12:43 PM
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As Salton sea's salinity approaches that of the Great Salt Lake, the feasibility of using it as a resort declines even further.
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I'll check out the movies; thanks! I find it all very interesting, very...movie-like. I mean, you couldn't make this stuff up.
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