Op-Ed: A New Life for a Dying Lake?

Photo taken at the Salton Sea by the author in 2019

An increasingly toxic lake has the potential to supply 40 percent of the world’s lithium. But, this discovery has put an impoverished community’s health and future on the line.

The discovery of mass amounts of lithium at the lakebed has been met with a concerning amount of optimism. On the surface it makes sense - lithium has become an important ingredient in a sustainable future, as it is needed for electric car batteries. Most lithium is currently sourced from Chile, Argentina, Australia, China and the U.S. is hungry to stake its claim in the market. But, the issue of mining in this area is far more complex than this.

The lake in question is the Salton Sea, California’s largest lake. This lake has been hailed as a miracle in the desert turned environmental disaster, and it’s not supposed to be there. It was created in 1905, when flooding from the Colorado River breached a poorly-constructed canal and flowed into the Salton Basin and didn’t stop flooding for two years. The Salton Sea had its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s as a playground for the rich and famous and popular vacation destination, “drawing 1.5 million visitors annually, more than Yosemite" (Iovenko, 2015).

But, this heyday didn’t last long. For decades, the main inflow of water into the lake was pesticide-laden agricultural runoff. This combined with the fact that the lake’s waters never discharge into the ocean, meant that the lake’s salinity continued to increase, until it was unable to sustain life. It’s salinity is currently “50 percent moreso than the Pacific ocean,” (Carelton, 2021).

Today, the Salton Sea may feel like a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Former resort towns are now abandoned, dilapidated buildings; millions of fish bones cover the beaches, and the lake has a foreboding stench. It is easy to see this place as unused land that should be reborn into something new and profitable. But in this optimism for the “Lithium Rush,” the people who live in the small towns dotting the Salton Sea are being forgotten.

While lithium may be good for the environment in the long run, the process of mining it is not. Considering the fact that the Salton Sea is already one of the most polluted places in the country, is so toxic that it’s become a graveyard for fish, and the region has terrible air quality, putting large mines in this particular area seems a dangerous proposition.

The people who live around the Salton Sea already deal with daily health consequences. They routinely breathe in “chemicals such as arsenic, selenium, and pesticides” and “asthma-related emergency room visits are more than double the state average”(Carleton, 2021). This is also one of the most impoverished areas in the state, where “22 percent live under the poverty line” and “85 percent of residents are hispanic or latino” (Carleton, 2021). Increasing pollution in this particular area, in the name of financial gain, just doesn’t feel ethical.

Furthermore, the Salton Sea is so much more than an “environmental eyesore” that needs to be repurposed. It has long been a haven for artists, free thinkers, and those who prefer to live at the edge of society. Abandoned towns, such as Bombay Beach have become littered with unique works of art, and abandoned buildings have become painted, covered in poetry, filled with sculptures made from garbage and transformed into a truly unique form of art museum. These are works of art that people come from around the world to see and it is unclear what will happen to them.

Slab City, an off-the-grid squatter’s community made famous by books and movies such as Into the Wild, is also located just 15 miles away from one of the proposed mine locations. Although it has been degradingly referred to as “filled with trailers and tweakers” by articles about the lithium mining, it and the people who live there are so much more than that (Fehrenbacher, 2020). Slab City is important because it is one of the few places where people are allowed to exist for free. You can grab a piece of land and establish a home on it, without needing to purchase it and businesses exist without permits or regulations, allowing food and items to be sold at a much more affordable price. It’s a refuge for eccentrics and people who may otherwise be living on the streets.

One resident I spoke to, Peter Passalacqua, feared that if the “lithium rush” brings in too many people, the area will become too expensive for Slabbers and other Salton Sea residents to live in. I, too, echo Peter’s sentiments and worry just how much this could change the culture for the worse.

In the rush for lithium and financial gain, the lives and health of individual people must not be forgotten. We must not see the Salton Sea as an abandoned wasteland, left to rot for decades, but as a home, with a valuable culture and a population that is vulnerable economically and especially, health-wise. Lithium is an important resource for sustainability, but it shouldn’t be mined at the possible expense of human lives.

Works Cited

Carleton, Audrey. “An Incredibly Toxic Lake Will Become One of the US' First Lithium Mines.” VICE, 12 July 2021, https://www.vice.com/en/article/epn5j7/an-incredibly-toxic-lake-will-become-one-of-the-uss-first-lithium-mines.

Fehrenbacher, Katie. “Lithium, the Salton Sea and a Startup That's Trying to Change the Game.” Gigaom, Gigaom, 11 June 2020, https://gigaom.com/2014/09/08/lithium-the-salton-sea-and-a-startup-thats-trying-to-change-the-game/.

Iovenko, Chris. “California's Largest Lake Is Now a Public-Health Threat.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 9 Nov. 2015, https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/11/the-airborne-toxic-lake-event/414888/.

Priebe, Rachel, and Peter Passalacqua. Personal Interview. 30 Oct. 2021.

Wells, Caleigh. “Why a Nearby Shrinking Lake Could Be an Answer to Climate Change.” KCRW, KCRW, 15 June 2021, https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/greater-la/reopening-day-climate-change-olympics/lithium-salton-sea.