Miracle in the Desert: The Rise and Fall of the Salton Sea

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Miracle in the Desert: The Rise and Fall of the Salton Sea is a 2020 feature-length documentary film that was directed by Greg Bassenian. [1] [2] The film chronicles the origins of the creation of the Salton Sea in 1905, the 1960s economic boom of the sea, as well as the current environmental challenges that it faces. It also includes interviews with local citizens as well as state and city-level officials involved in the current efforts to mitigate and/or restore the Salton Sea.

Contents

Synopsis

Miracle in the Desert: The Rise and Fall of the Salton Sea chronicles the origins of the creation of the Salton Sea in 1905 up through current day 2020, as well as a large overview of Imperial Valley history and the origins of the Imperial Valley. [3] [4] It also covers the current political and environmental initiatives around the sea due to issues such as water rights transfers that are causing the sea to decline due to less influx of water to the farm of the Imperial Valley. [5] [6] The documentary features interviews with state and local officials, as well as citizens living near the Salton Sea, gaining their perspective on the current state of the Salton Sea and possible large scale restoration solutions. [7]

Release

The film was released to digital streaming platforms and DVD September 22, 2020 by documentary studio Gravitas Ventures. [8]

Reception

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imperial County, California</span> County in California, United States

Imperial County is a county located on the southeast border of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 179,702, making it the least populous county in Southern California. The county seat and largest city is El Centro. Imperial is the most recent California county to be established, as it was created in 1907 out of portions of San Diego County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bombay Beach, California</span> Census-designated place in California, United States

Bombay Beach is a census-designated place (CDP) in Imperial County, California, United States. It is located on the Salton Sea, 4 miles (6.4 km) west-southwest of Frink and is the lowest community in the United States, located 223 feet (68 m) below sea level. The population was 231 at the 2020 census, down from 295 in 2010, down from 366 in 2000. It is part of the El Centro, California, metropolitan statistical area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Desert Shores, California</span> Census-designated place in California, United States

Desert Shores is a census-designated place (CDP) in Imperial County, California, US. It is part of the El Centro Metropolitan Statistical Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salton City, California</span> Census designated place in California, United States

Salton City is a census-designated place (CDP) in Imperial County, California. It is the largest Imperial County development on the Salton Sea coast. It is part of the El Centro, California Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 3,763 at the 2010 census, up from 978 in 2000. The reported population for 2020 was 5,155.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salton Sea</span> Shallow saline lake in southern California

The Salton Sea is a shallow, landlocked, highly saline body of water in Riverside and Imperial counties at the southern end of the U.S. state of California. It lies on the San Andreas Fault within the Salton Trough, which stretches to the Gulf of California in Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imperial Valley</span> Valley in California, United States

The Imperial Valley of Southern California lies in Imperial and Riverside counties, with an urban area centered on the city of El Centro. The Valley is bordered by the Colorado River to the east and, in part, the Salton Sea to the west. Farther west lies the San Diego and Imperial County border. To the north is the Coachella Valley region of Riverside County, which together with Imperial Valley form the Salton Trough, or the Cahuilla Basin, also the county line of Imperial and Riverside counties, and to the south the international boundary with Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colorado Desert</span> Subdivision of the larger Sonoran Desert, California

California's Colorado Desert is a part of the larger Sonoran Desert. It encompasses approximately 7 million acres, including the heavily irrigated Coachella and Imperial valleys. It is home to many unique flora and fauna.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salton Sink</span> Geographic sink in California

The Salton Sink is the low point of an endorheic basin, a closed drainage system with no outflows to other bodies of water, in the Colorado Desert sub-region of the Sonoran Desert. The sink falls within the larger Salton Trough and separates the Coachella Valley from the Imperial Valley, which are also segments of the Salton Trough. The lowest point of the sink is 269 ft (82 m) below sea level, and since 1906 the 343 square miles (890 km2) Salton Sea has filled the lowest portion of the sink to a water depth of up to 43 ft (13 m).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alamo River</span> River in Mexico, United States

The Alamo River flows west and north from the Mexicali Valley across the Imperial Valley (California). The 52-mile-long (84 km) river drains into the Salton Sea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New River (Mexico–United States)</span> River that flows from Mexico into the United States

The New River flows north from near Cerro Prieto, through the city of Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico, into the United States through the city of Calexico, California, towards the Salton Sea. The river channel has existed since pre-historic times. The river as known today formed from a levee failure and massive flooding that filled the Salton Sea.

The California Development Company was formed in 1896 as a replacement for the defunct Colorado River Irrigation Company, which had been started a few years earlier for the purpose of planning an irrigation system for the lower Colorado Desert in California. The rich, silty soil of the area was found to be suitable for agriculture, but wells tapping groundwater brought up an inadequate supply of water for such a hot, arid region. The California Development Company took over the project of diverting Colorado River water into the Coachella and Imperial Valleys in the Salton Sink, a dry lake bed which today contains the Salton Sea, hoping to turn the desert green with agricultural fields. The first canals were being constructed by 1900 under the guidance of chief engineer George Chaffey.

The Imperial Irrigation District (IID) is an irrigation district that serves the Imperial Valley and a large portion of the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert region of Southern California. Established under the State Water Code, the IID supplies roughly 500,000 acres (200,000 ha) of Imperial Valley farmland with raw Colorado River water to support irrigation. IID also supplies electrical energy to the Imperial and Coachella valleys.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">High Desert (California)</span> Geographic area of southern California

High Desert is a vernacular region with non-discrete boundaries covering areas of the western Mojave Desert in Southern California. The region encompasses various terrain with elevations generally between 2,000 and 4,000 ft above sea level, and is located just north of the San Gabriel, San Bernardino, and Little San Bernardino Mountains.

The Lost Ship of the Desert is the subject of legends about various historical maritime vessels having supposedly become stranded and subsequently lost in the deserts of the American Southwest, most commonly in California's Colorado Desert. Since the period following the American Civil War, stories about Spanish treasure galleons buried beneath the desert sands north of the Gulf of California have emerged as popular legends in American folklore.

Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea is a documentary film by Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer, with narration by John Waters and music by Friends of Dean Martinez.

The Salton Sea is a saline lake in the Colorado Desert of Southern California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge</span> Protected area in Imperial Valley, California

The Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge is located in the Imperial Valley of California, 40 miles (64 km) north of the Mexican border. Situated at the southern end of the Salton Sea, the refuge protects one of the most important nesting sites and stopovers along the Pacific Flyway. Despite its location in the Colorado Desert, a subdivision of the larger Sonoran Desert, the refuge contains marine, freshwater, wetland, and agricultural habitats which provide sanctuary for hundreds of birds and wetland species, including several that have been listed as endangered or sensitive by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Kim Stringfellow is an American artist, educator, and photographer based out of Joshua Tree, California. She is an associate professor at the San Diego State School of Art, Design, and Art History and received her MFA in Art and Technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Stringfellow is notable as an artist for her transmedia documentaries of landscape and the economic effects of environmental issues on humans and habitat. Stringfellow's photographic and multimedia projects engage human/landscape interactions and explore the interrelation of the global and the local.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salton Trough</span> Active tectonic pull-apart basin

The Salton Trough is an active tectonic pull-apart basin, or graben. It lies within the Imperial, Riverside, and San Diego counties of southeastern California and extends south of the Mexico–United States border into the state of Baja California.

The Quantification Settlement Agreement of 2003 is an agreement between the Imperial Irrigation District, the San Diego County Water Authority, and several other federal, local, and state water agencies. Under the terms of the agreement, the Imperial Irrigation District (IID) agreed to transfer large quantities of irrigation water to the San Diego County Water Authority while providing a pathway for the state of California to restore the Salton Sea. According to the IID, "The Quantification Settlement Agreement and Related Agreements are a set of inter-related contracts that settle certain disputes among the United States, the State of California, IID, Metropolitan Water District, Coachella Valley Water District and the San Diego County Water Authority."

References

  1. "LBB Film Club: 'Miracle in the Desert: The Rise and Fall of The Salton Sea'". LBBOnline. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  2. "Salton Sea Documentary Sheds New Light on a Looming Environmental Disaster". NBC Los Angeles. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  3. Morales, Julio. "Documentary highlights ailing Salton Sea". Imperial Valley Press Online. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  4. Flores, Roman. "Los Angeles filmmaker's Salton Sea documentary highlights Imperial Valley history". The Desert Review. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  5. Stuart, Gwynedd (2020-09-24). "How the Salton Sea, Once a Leisure Destination, Became an Ecological Time Bomb". Los Angeles Magazine. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  6. "Salton Sea Documentary Sheds New Light on a Looming Environmental Disaster". www.msn.com. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  7. Olalde, Mark. "New Salton Sea documentary wades into the slow-moving environmental disaster". The Desert Sun. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  8. McNary, Dave (2020-06-24). "Film News in Brief: Jim Gaffigan, Joel Courtney Join 'Jesus Revolution' for Lionsgate". Variety. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  9. "The WINNERS!". THE BSFF. Retrieved 2020-09-30.