Toxic Salton Sea dust triggers changes in lung microbiome after just one week
15 comments
·November 7, 2025yabones
ribosometronome
I'm not sure the Salton is the best example of that. It's not a permanent fixture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salton_Sea
It seems it's presently only still here because of previous inefficient irrigation (from the Colorado River) and that farmers restricting their water usage is actually leading to the Salton's decline.
yabones
Ah, interesting. Much more complicated than I'd think, especially as somebody not from those parts.
https://xkcd.com/1739/ - but with "terraforming"
mlmonkey
I was visiting Palm Springs one year, late summer. I had assumed that since it was in the middle of the desert, that water use would be regulated.
But as I drove around over there, I was shocked to see massive lawns being watered in the middle of the day, and large amounts of water just flowing out from these lawns into the drains. Sometimes the giant sprinklers were watering the sidewalks and roads too.
What a waste of water! Speaking to a local, they claimed that due to some old water rights agreement, Palm Springs gets its water for really cheap and there is no incentive to conserve it. Sad state of affairs.
bri3d
The Salton Sea is drying up due to _decreased_ agricultural water consumption in the area; it was formed by agricultural run-off, which is why it's so toxic, and now there's less runoff to fill it up.
dragonwriter
> it was formed by agricultural run-off,
No, its lifespan was extended by agricultural runoff offsetting the natural drying out which would have otherwise occurred after the event which formed it was corrected, but it was formed by a breach in an irrigation canal that occurred in 1905 and wasn't repaired until 1907.
bri3d
Whoops... it was formed by agricultural run-in!
Regardless, it's sort of a bad example of "humans are the virus" type thinking, since it both lived and died by agriculture.
If you really dig into the story there is an interesting commentary about the horrible Western US water rights compacts system and the continuing inability for US states, especially in the West, to accurately price water consumption in a way that makes consumers sensitive to inefficient water use. But even then, in the case of the Salton Sea, the system actually did work: inefficient agricultural use was "improved" when San Diego called for more water and farmers were forced to be more efficient. Perhaps in an ideal world those farms would never have existed at all.
tejtm
researchers note: burning man provides an annual cohort of samples
slicktux
I watched a documentary a while back on the Salton Sea. It touched on the local residents that live in the area and how the dust affected the children. There were even plans of tapping into Mexico’s Laguna Salada to help keep the Salton Sea from drying up.
Although it’s not a natural sea and its full of chemicals from agricultural run off the residents that live in the area are suffering from the dust and fears of great dust clouds plumbing and going west to San Diego were also insensitives from keeping the hazardous Salton Sea from drying up.
Beautiful place to visit…just not during summer when it smells from all the Dead Sea life.
jorts
Not surprising. I have a friend who grew up in El Centro and had asthma his whole childhood. Shortly after moving, he never had respiratory issues.
broof
This makes me incredibly concerned for the great salt lake
dexwiz
Saw a joke theory saying that why Real Housewives of SLC has gotten so crazy recently is that the salt lake drying up has increased heavy metal content in the air and lowering IQ in the region.
J_Shelby_J
Real life lore did a great video about it recently. It’s inevitable at current water usage.
ThinkBeat
Toxic Salton Sea dust triggers changes in MICE lung microbiome after just one week.
I really wish this would be included in the headline in such stories.
Is there a repository somewhere that measures the number of studies on mice that go on to successful human trials or verification.
With the prominence of studies on mice, I think most humans trials Started on mice.
No wonder the lake is drying up with so much irrigation for agriculture, and an absurd number of golf courses in a very small area.
https://www.google.ca/maps/@33.6867973,-116.2608676,25994m
It's clear to me as an outsider that California has serious water sustainability problems. I mean, how long can this last?