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Salton Beach Research Paper

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In the 1950s and '60s, Bombay Beach in California was a thriving resort. Guests swam, water-skied, and golfed during the day, then headed to the yacht club to party at the end of the night. Now, Bombay Beach is a faded, rusted, abandoned wasteland. The water smells like salt, gas, and rotting dead fish. The shores lined with sunbathers before, and now they are covered in green sludge and dried fish remains. To understand how this place turned from paradise to agony, you need to know the story of the Salton Sea. Bombay Beach doesn’t lie on the west coast, but in the Colorado Desert. In 1905, the Colorado River swelled, penetrated its walls, and flooded the desert valley known as the Salton Sink. The water flowed for two years, then creating a 15 by 35 mile lake named the Salton Sea. The creation of this internal sea was an accident; it was initially emerged to deliver great benefits. Birds flocked to the area, and fish bloomed in the Salton Sea. Developers held the rare setting and selected it the "Salton Riviera," or a "miracle in the desert." Hotels, yacht clubs, homes, and schools sprang up by the shores, as the Salton Sea became a resort destination and a great place to be. …show more content…

With no drainage outlet, almost nothing of annual rain, and runoff flowing in from nearby farms; the sea was polluted with dirty and saltier water than the Pacific Ocean. Periodic flooding brought the poisoned water closer and closer to the shore. Useless oxygen in the sea killed many fish and dragged their rotting bodies onto the beach shores, and that’s where they shriveled in the sun. As they rotted, the sand became covered in a layer of scrappy fish skeletons. Birds also died in that water or have gotten severally sick. Rangers go out there every day to rescue the birds and clean up some of the other dead birds found in the sea or in the

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