SALTON CITY, Calif.— The Salton Sea is one of the largest lakes in California, and it teemed with water, fish, and tourists just a few decades ago. However, over the last three decades, the body of water has become a major ecological challenge, with sulfide smells now keeping tourists away.
Resting at 227 feet below sea level, the area’s unique location and surrounding topography led to a cycle in which the lake formed, dried out, and reformed. However, decades-long drought conditions and modern agricultural development in the surrounding valleys have reduced freshwater inflows while making the lake a sink for agricultural runoff, including artificial fertilizers and pesticides. While this runoff keeps the lake from drying up completely, the chemicals have created a persistent sulfide smell and surface algae growth.
“Because the Salton Sea is shallowing rapidly, the late overturns mix a lot more often than is used to, which is why the sulfide smell is now more persistent. It starts in the spring and persists all through the summer,” Caroline Hung, a doctoral candidate and researcher at the Lyons Biogeochemistry Lab at UC Riverside, told NTD, a sister media of The Epoch Times. She said that as algae matter decays, bacteria that consume the decay reduce oxygen levels in the water.
The lack of oxygen causes the sulfate-reducing bacteria to go through an anaerobic metabolism that produces hydrogen sulfide, methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen. Hydrogen sulfide is known f.