Salton Sea- instead of dead wasted could be "Lithium Valley"

Nathan

Nathan

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High Desert- Calif.
The Salton Sea was a resort at one time, rising salinity and raw sewage pouring in from Mexico turned it into a ghost town. The hunt for a domestic supply of lithium for all sorts of electric batteries may be the Salton Sea's salvation.
The Salton Sea – a shallow, landlocked, highly-saline body on the border of southern Riverside and northern Imperial counties – may be holding a giant key to the future. Researchers are working to understand how much lithium lies deep in the earth beneath the sea. The area is already home to eleven geothermal power plants, which pull up a brine from a mile down, create steam and spin turbines to create energy.

That brine is also rich in lithium, which can be filtered out using special processes. Eventually, that lithium could be used to create batteries for mobile phones, laptops and electric cars.
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https://www.kcet.org/news-community...e-salton-sea-researchers-work-out-the-details
 

From desert to resort high dollar to wasteland .....

"In the 1970s, scientists issued warnings that the lake would continue to shrink and become more inhospitable to wildlife. In the 1980s, contamination from farm runoff promoted the outbreak and spread of diseases. Massive die-offs of the avian populations have occurred, especially after the loss of several species of fish on which they depend. Salinity rose so high that large fish kills occurred, often blighting the beaches of the sea with their carcasses. Tourism was drastically reduced.

After 1999, the lake began to shrink as local agriculture used the water more efficiently
--- I think Los Angeles got most of the water that used to go to the lake ---
so less runoff flowed into the lake. As the lake bed became exposed, the winds sent clouds of toxic dust into nearby communities. Smaller amounts of dust reached into the Los Angeles area and people there could sometimes smell an odor coming from the lake."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salton_Sea
 
Just Jeff said:
From desert to resort high dollar to wasteland .....

"In the 1970s, scientists issued warnings that the lake would continue to shrink and become more inhospitable to wildlife. In the 1980s, contamination from farm runoff promoted the outbreak and spread of diseases. Massive die-offs of the avian populations have occurred, especially after the loss of several species of fish on which they depend. Salinity rose so high that large fish kills occurred, often blighting the beaches of the sea with their carcasses. Tourism was drastically reduced.

After 1999, the lake began to shrink as local agriculture used the water more efficiently
--- I think Los Angeles got most of the water that used to go to the lake ---
so less runoff flowed into the lake. As the lake bed became exposed, the winds sent clouds of toxic dust into nearby communities. Smaller amounts of dust reached into the Los Angeles area and people there could sometimes smell an odor coming from the lake."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salton_Sea
Click to expand...
Yeah, for a while, instead of The Saltan Sea, southern Californians called it The Stinkin Sea.
 
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Salton Sea Documentary Sheds New Light on a Looming Environmental ...nbclosangeles.com› entertainment › salton-sea-documentary-sheds-new-light-on-a-looming-environmental-disaster › 2432353
NSZzdHJpcD1hbGw

October 8, 2020 - The Salton Sea's receding coastline as seen in the documentary "Miracle in the Desert: The Rise and Fall of the Salton Sea." Bassenian says he hopes the film will give people, not just in California, but around the world a closer look at the impact of ecological disasters and the urgency that ...
 
Just Jeff said:
Salton Sea Documentary Sheds New Light on a Looming Environmental ...nbclosangeles.com› entertainment › salton-sea-documentary-sheds-new-light-on-a-looming-environmental-disaster › 2432353
NSZzdHJpcD1hbGw

October 8, 2020 - The Salton Sea's receding coastline as seen in the documentary "Miracle in the Desert: The Rise and Fall of the Salton Sea." Bassenian says he hopes the film will give people, not just in California, but around the world a closer look at the impact of ecological disasters and the urgency that ...
Click to expand...
Harvesting lithium there might bring development to that whole area. Think about it, you can't build anything on spoiled earth, you have to clean it up first, and you have to provide it with clean water. If extracting lithium becomes an industry there, then that whole area could be brought to life again.
 
We used to go boating-fishing and camping there, but the red tides alge blooms would cause millions of fish to die...and stink!

The last straw was the raw sewage...nope- we're outta here! :eek:
 
The west/Pacific coast regions seems to have a lot of lithium. California I think has the largest deposits of lithium in one area in the US. Supposedly they are looking for a cleaner way to mine it.

Some say lithium mining is like those gold mining shows where everyone jumps for joy at speckles and chunks smaller than a gambling dice. The volume of earth that must be processed to produce battery/ies quanties for one car is in the tons.
 

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