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Personal Challenge To Hike Salton Sea Turns Into Environmental Mission

Dead fish, decaying lake, air pollution, water transfer threaten California's largest lake

Getting Ready To Walk The Salton Sea 2015
Personal Challenge To Hike Salton Sea Turns Into Environmental Mission
Personal Challenge To Hike Salton Sea Turns Into Environmental Mission GUESTS:Randy Brown, completed 116-mile trek around Salton Sea Blake Alexander, producer, Black Moon Productions Michael Cohen, author, Pacific Institute's "Hazard's Toll"

Trekking around the desert in Imperial County in June is not exactly a dream vacation but it was the realization of a personal goal for my next guests. What started out as a hiking trip became an environmental issue in because the hike was around California's largest lake. The imperiled Salton Sea . Randy Brown completed this hike last weekend and it's a central feature of a document produced about Sultan see. -- Salton Sea . Welcome to the show Randy. Like Alexander is here he's producing a document about the Salton Sea called abandoning paradise . Michael Cohen is a senior associate with the Pacific Institute. A nonprofit research organization on the Sultan see -- Salton Sea It's been a couple of days and I think I'm almost to normal recovering. I feel are fine and I'm feeling pretty good. You're the first person to hike around the shoreline? Yes. This walked did not start out as an environmental journey. Tell us how this idea came about? About a year ago it was a challenge for myself personally. I was overweight and I have started walking to try and lose weight in the hills above my home in Rancho Cucamonga. Is looking for a way to challenge myself. I enjoyed walking in the heat where live, and I went back to the days of camping as a child at the Sultan see. But it was an interesting place they wonder if anybody has ever walked around I thought it would be a challenge in the summertime. I researched it found that nobody had walked the shoreline. So I thought I'm going to do this. As I started planning about 14 months of planning, I started meeting people who lived there and learning more about the Sultan seat and the state it was in. It slowly turned into more of a challenge to range awareness. You had a rude awakening because your memories were from 35 years ago. But as you see today? Going back after that amount of time was shocking. It used to be a place, crowded that -- crowded campgrounds boats and fishing. It's now desolate. The water line had receded hundreds of yards from where account as a child. It was a real shock to see how it has changed and gone downhill. Michael you done reports on the Sultan see. If you could give us a reminder on how this see, this accidental man-made creation, how is it turned into this environmental wasteland? It's essentially the arm of the Colorado River Delta. The currents on this is fed or maintained by agricultural runoff it's somewhat artificial. Just another incarnation of leaks that have existed therefore eons. The main distinction is that the birds don't distinguish at all. It's very important ecological resource. Through a series of agreements, the most importantly the one at 2003, somewhat of it currently flows into the Sultan see is being transferred to San Diego. About 25% of San Diego's water now comes from the Imperial Valley . so the sea is shrinking? Is shrinking because of less water from Mexico and other factors. But what we will see in a few years is a very traumatic change. Randy mentioned there's been changes to the Sultan see and most of that has occurred in the last 15 years. But in about 3 years were going to see a bigger change in the Salton Sea . There's going to be a massive loss of fish and birds will go elsewhere. There's going to be a lot of dust in the area. You followed Randy on his hike around the Salton Sea. For you planning to do a document on this before two it was something that always interested me because my family came to Palm Springs in 2003 and we decided to drive down to see this inland sea. We had this fascination with this body of water and did not know much about it. It became this fascination and fast-forward to last spring I was looking for a new project and I was looking for something to do with the Sultan see. Granted started following me on twitter. His blog was called Salton Sea walk. We have an interesting subject matter with this guy and his attorney. So we could combined these 2 into one it was perfect. Tell us what your cameras recorded. I've seen some of the footage in your promotional trailer. Sections of the Salton Sea to not look like a wasteland they look really beautiful. That was one thing we wanted to capture. Is not just a wasteland we wanted to give a fairly objective look. There are places that are extremely rundown and were not going to hide that, but we did capture gorgeous shots of sunsets and sunrises. We had a drone that we flew all over the coastline. It's stunning and if we can get people to at least get some interest, to at least look at out. To Google the Salton Sea, I think we've done our job. At the mileage of the track itself, 116 miles, it sounds like a lot. Is not a record-breaking hike but you had to deal with some very terrible conditions. Tell us about that. A 100 mile hike is not all that big of a deal but a 100 mile hike in the summer at the Salton Sea is a big deal. Temperatures ranged from about 90 degrees to 100 and 90 degrees to 108 degrees and I was expecting temperatures up to 120. We did not get that high. Combined with that you have humidity of 95% or more works like a wet hot blanket on you. So it is hard to stay cool. You've got to send along the shore. I used to call it my but it's more like quicksand. If you get stuck in there alone, you're in big trouble. In addition to that a lot of the shore is covered with dead particle shells and fish bones. A couple of feet deep, walking through that is like trudging through the snow like climbing up stairmaster for hours at a time in this heat. It's very challenging and that's not mentioning rivers and water drainage canals to cross. The horse flies are relentless. They were biting me through the shirt on my back. So it was a challenge. Don't try this at home or at the Salton Sea unless you have to [ laughter ]. We spoke to last fall about this report in this urged lawmakers to come up with a plan to rehabilitate the sea risk an environmental disaster. Can you give us the short version of why this is a potential environmental disaster? In 2018 the conditions at the Salton Sea will change dramatically. Because the water transfer impacts are no longer going to be offset. So this might drop as much as 20 feet we might see 100 mi.² of lakebed exposed will increase the dust blowing. The sale 90 is going to triple. Is simply an ecological collapse. All of the fish will be gone and a lot of the invertebrate that the fish and birds eat are going to gone. Back when the transfer was signed in 2003 the state of California backstopped liability for the transfer. But the state is very slow to the gain they have not stepped up to say they're going to do these things. What we are seeing if these costs being shifted to the people in the color challenge Valley. You at that time proposed a multibillion-dollar plan to rehabilitate the sea. To turn it into an economic engine. Have you gotten economic reaction from lawmakers? The state of California 2007 came up with a $9 billion plan. But there was very little support for that. So what we have come up with or suggested is that the state move forward with a number of small scale habitat quality projects. But were still waiting for the state to move on those. Is really a lack of urgency. I suppose in talking to the advocates that you have in getting this abandoning paradise together, that's type of urgency your trying to create? Yes we want to show what's going to happen if this dries up. One of the impacts. Why should be save it and why should we care. What is this place and where is it. We wanted to give a crash course and then make it not just factual but interesting in following this guys journey. Is there a timeline on this documentary? We hope January 2016 is the goal. Where there are times Randy when these perils or hazards you had to go through, that maybe you thought you would not make it? There were a few times when it went to plan B. And then onto plan D. Were I was not sure how to proceed next but was able to work through it. Like the mud I got stuck in. There was no safe way through this so had to track back inland and cross a canal the old-fashioned way. Build a tree bridge and get my way through it. I had been planning this for 14 months and I technically won't around it twice now. Once over the last year and a half and once over six days. So I knew of the challenges and what I would be facing. There were a few curveballs in the last week. With this scary for you Blake? We would in the trenches? It wasn't too crushed. I was out there about 75% of the training mission. I have family in the Coachella Valley so I'm used to the heat. It was a great for my camera people who came down from Seattle. One nearly passed out. She went down. We had to run in the heat at about 114 degrees. Her being from Seattle, she was tough but she just wasn't that top. Nobody really knew what to do people just it around looking at her. And they had water. We had a good idea of what to do and get her back on her feet. What are you planning next? I'm planning on resting I'm talking with our friends at the eco-media compass about maybe taking a walk from the Sea of Cortez to the proposed channel route making that route from the Salton Sea thank you to Blake Alexander and this document is called abandoning paradise. Thank you so much.

A personal challenge for a Rancho Cucamonga website developer turned into an environmental mission, as Randy Brown became the first person to hike the entire distance around the Salton Sea shoreline last weekend.

The Salton Sea, the state’s largest lake, sits 125 miles east of San Diego in the Anza-Borrego Desert. It was re-created when flooding on the Colorado River in 1905 breached canal gates, sending water gushing into Salton Trough in Imperial County. The desert also spans to Riverside and San Diego counties.

The area around Salton Sea saw a tourist boom for decades. Marinas lined the shoreline of what was called the “Salton Riviera,” packed with boaters, water skiers, campers and fishermen.

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But all that changed as the lake started receding. It was also becoming saltier every year.

The Salton Sea is a closed drainage basin, receiving only inflows from agriculture drainage, storm flow and urban runoff. The increased salinity killed off fish, causing some of the lake to dry up and threatening its ecosystem. People living nearby are dealing with air pollution and breathing problems because of the dust left behind at the lake.

Brown said he couldn’t believe what he saw last September when he made his first trip in 35 years to the Salton Sea. His family took regular camping trips there in the 1970s.

“The first thing that hit me was all the abandoned buildings,” Brown said. "As I kid I remember it being a vibrant, bold, busy place. We couldn’t find a campsite at times it was so crowded. People were catching 10, 20, 30-pound fish. There were so many boats in the water and businesses were thriving.”

The Salton Sea had been a big part of Brown’s life but he said he was ignorant to what it had become. He met filmmaker Blake Alexander of Black Moon Productions through social media. Alexander was planning on filming a documentary on the plight of the Salton Sea. Brown is now the central focus of “Abandoned Paradise,” which is still in production.

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Brown’s 116-mile journey took six days. It may not seem like a big deal for an avid hiker but it did have its challenges including desert humidity and heat, reaching 105-110 degrees, Brown said.

“The shoreline was hot, humid, like being wrapped in a blanket,” Brown said. “Much of it is covered in dead barnacle shells and fish bones. It’s like walking in snow, you sink down into your ankles.”

Then there’s the mud.

“It’s like quicksand. I had some close calls where I was sinking,” he said.

But he said there are also misconceptions.

“People think it’s dangerous to swim or you can’t eat the fish — that depends on where you go,” Brown said.

San Diego and other Southern California water agencies will stop replenishing the lake after 2017 and that urban water transfer has already begun.

Personal Challenge To Hike Salton Sea Turns Into Environmental Mission