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((PLAYBOOK SLUG: Saving Salton Sea TV
HEADLINE: Saving California’s Salton Sea: No Easy Answers
TEASER: Some hope to restore the inland lake, once a popular resort and now an environmental disaster
PUBLISHED AT: Tuesday, 04/26/2022 at 7:35p
BYLINE: Mike O’Sullivan
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: Bombay Beach, California
VIDEOGRAPHER: Mike O’Sullivan, Roy Kim
VIDEO EDITOR: Mike O’Sullivan
SCRIPT EDITORS: MAS, BR
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA, AFP, AP, North Shore Yacht Club/YouTube
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV _x_ RADIO __
TRT: 2:38
VID APPROVED BY: Jepsen
TYPE: TVPKG
EDITOR NOTES:))
((INTRODUCTION))
[[Once a tourist resort and haven for wildlife, California’s largest lake – the Salton Sea - is now one of the most polluted. High levels of salt and toxic chemicals have killed most of its fish and threatens residents – as VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan reports from Bombay Beach, California. ]]
((NARRATOR))
Once a holiday destination, Salton Sea is the largest inland lake in California, 56 kilometers long.
((MANDATORY CREDIT: North Shore Yacht Club/YouTube Logo))
From the 1950s through 1970s, it was a weekend getaway.
Now distant memories for Dean McAffee, who is standing on the site where his favorite bar once stood.
((Dean McAffee, Salton Sea Resident))
“You could ride your motorcycle out in the desert if you wanted to, ride your dune buggy out there, then come back and go water skiing, fishing. There was everything here.”
((NARRATOR))
Today, the town of Bombay Beach is an artist colony, in a region where the main industries are agriculture and energy production.
A 1905 flood from the Colorado River created the modern lake when water crashed through the gates of a canal. It was accidental, but part of an age-old cycle spanning millions of years.
((FOR RADIO: Michael McKibben is a geologist with the University of California, Riverside.))
((Michael McKibben, UC Riverside Geologist))
“The sea has never been stable. It’s always been either filling up or drying out. We have evidence of that going back to almost three or four million years ago.”
((NARRATOR))
Runoff from agriculture replenished the modern lake’s water, but also polluted it with pesticides and other contaminants.
Now, the Salton Sea is shrinking, exposing part of the former lakebed now laced with toxic dust.
((FOR RADIO: Miguel Hernandez of the California Natural Resources Agency))
((Miguel Hernandez, California Natural Resources Agency))
“Levels of the inflow have decreased in the latest years because the use of the water has improved, farmers are using the water more efficiently, and therefore not enough water gets into the Salton Sea and that’s why it’s receding.”
((NARRATOR))
Public health workers say pollution from the exposed lakebed worsens asthma symptoms. The director of a social service agency says so does pollution from Mexicali, Mexico.
((FOR RADIO: Luis Olmedo is executive director of a social service agency, Comite Civico del Valle.))
((Luis Olmedo, Comite Civico del Valle))
“Multiple contaminants. And we’re right by the border, so we get enormous amounts of transfer of pollution coming from Mexico because we get characterized as a rural community. Well, we might appear to be rural, but we are basically suburban to a metropolitan area of over one million people right across the border.”
((NARRATOR))
Some ideas to save the lake include bringing in more water,
((MANDATORY CREDIT: Sea Shepherd))
...like an ambitious scheme to build a canal to channel seawater
(MANDATORY CREDIT: Google Earth))
200 kilometers north from Mexico’s Sea of Cortez.
Meanwhile, government agencies and a native tribe that own some of the land and lakebed are working to restore the natural habitat for wildlife and people.
((Mike O’Sullivan, VOA News, Bombay Beach, California))
NewsML Media TopicsEnvironment
NetworkVOA
Embargo DateApril 26, 2022 19:40 EDT
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
