Research calls for better protections from Salton Sea pollution

S1: Welcome in San Diego , it's Jade Hindman. On today's show , we look at new research on the Salton Sea and its toxic impact on nearby neighborhoods. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Straddling both Imperial and Riverside counties , California's Salton Sea is the state's largest lake. It's long suffered from toxic air and water , and for years , the health and well-being of people who live near it has suffered due to its toxic air and water. Research out of UCLA is calling for more solutions , though , to that pollution. Joining me now is Isabella Arceneaux Soltero. She is assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at UCLA. Professor. Welcome.

S2: Thank you. Happy to be here.

S1: So happy to have you on. Um , so give me a little history here. For those who don't know.

S2: And it used to be filled and emptied on a regular basis about every hundred years , up until we decided to start damming the Colorado River. And then , um , in 1905 , one of the one of those dams broke and filled what we currently know as the Salton Sea basin. And since then , most of the water that reaches the Salton Sea , uh , itself is , uh , composed of agricultural runoff and agricultural runoff is full of nutrients. And that has created a huge ecological imbalance in the water that is then affected the air quality of the surrounding areas.

S1: Well , in your research , looked into that air quality and also the water quality impacts to the region around the Salton Sea and communities there. I want to start with the air quality , though. Your research mentions hydrogen sulfide , and this is something many residents here in San Diego's South Bay have complained about from the Tijuana River pollution there. And I think the first thing people talk about is that smell. Tell me more about that. And what what hydrogen sulfide is.

S2: So hydrogen sulfide is that rotten egg smell that people associate with decomposition , say , and the state of California actually has a standard for hydrogen sulfide. Hydrogen sulfide in the environment shouldn't surpass 30 parts per billion. And that's because , um , over long chronic exposures , it can have harmful impacts for physical and mental health. I'm sure that a lot of the residents in Southern California , um , that have had that have been exposed to hydrogen sulfide , know that once you're there , you feel like you're suffocating a little bit , like you don't want to be there mentally. You want to be inside , uh , somewhere else with clean air , etc..

S1:

S2: There's been a lot of , uh , peer reviewed research on the , uh , more industry related acute , uh , very high exposure to hydrogen sulfide. But the there's nascent research on the chronic exposures to lower , more ambient levels. Um , but we know from some of the recently published , uh , peer reviewed articles that some of those symptoms include headaches , nausea. Some people report sleep apnea. Um , some people report problems breathing. Um , nosebleeds. Um. ET cetera. Hmm.

S1: Hmm. Well , what did your research find ? When it comes to hydrogen sulfide levels around the Salton Sea.

S2: So I mentioned that the state has this hydrogen sulfide standard 30 parts per billion. And what my research found was that for communities around the Salton Sea , they're exposed to hundreds of hours during which the hydrogen sulfide concentrations surpass the state standard. And so they have to be continuously living with these unhealthy levels of hydrogen sulfide.

S1:

S2: But alas , that is part of what we're calling for more enforcement , because we know that it's exceeding the the state standards. But if there's no enforcement related to that , then what's the point of even having a state standard , right.

S1: So there's there's no enforcement. Your research points to gaps in monitoring to get a full picture of this hydrogen sulfide that's in the air. Um , tell me more about what's missing here.

S2: So a lot of what's missing is , first of all , more monitoring spatially. So unfortunately , there's only a few monitors that are placed either to the very north of the Salton Sea or to the very south of the Salton Sea. I think in total , there's about four hydrogen sulfide monitors , which , incidentally , were placed near the Salton Sea when people in nearby Palm Springs started complaining about the smell. And even though the communities around the Salton Sea have had to be dealing with this for their entire lives now. The placement of these sensors is such that they only really capture the hydrogen sulfide concentrations when the wind is pointing in a very specific direction. And so they're missing a lot of other exposure in areas that don't have sensors. And I know that recently we had not we recently there was a published article that mentioned that in reality , lakes , especially in the US that are situated in areas where in communities of color are actually monitored significantly less than if they were situated in wealthier white neighborhoods. And this comes back to this point of if you don't monitor it and you don't , if you don't have evidence of the problem , then you don't have the responsibility of doing something to fix that problem.

S1: A real issue of environmental justice happening here. So the Salton Sea , as of now , is the state's largest lake. But the water's receding. So tell us about what's happening now and why that's important.

S2: So right now there's a lot of money being invested into the Salton Sea. And since the passing of the Quantification Settlement Agreement in the early 2000 , the state has had a legal obligation to restore the Salton Sea. Now , a lot of the investments that are going on in the Salton Sea have to do with the ecology. And unfortunately , a lot of these projects , I believe , are going to soon become obsolete as the water levels continue to decline because they rely a lot on the spatial connection to the Salton Sea and the the water levels are receding even at a more accelerated pace these past two years than they have during the past 20 or so years. So during the past 20 or so years , it's been going down at about a level of 20cm per year. And now , as of last year , it's going down at about 50cm every year. And , um , that really accelerates the rate at which we're going to see this water body disappear. Hmm.

S1: Hmm. Well , and as it continues to recede , I would imagine that dust kicks up , causing more air pollution.

S2: Yeah.

S1: Yeah. You know , um , what can you tell us about the people living near the Salton Sea ? I mean , navigating the pollution seems to be a daily part of life for them. Yes.

S2: Yes. Um , and these are communities that can necessarily relocate or want to relocate. They are about a quarter of them live below the poverty line , and most of them are either Indigenous or Latinx. Many of them are undocumented. And as you know , um , and I was listening to the previous segment on on KPBS , there's a big there's a lot of stressors on on Latinx communities these days , and there have always been a lot of stressors and Latinx communities. But now more than ever , it's just compounded with this environmental justice lens. Mhm.

S1: Mhm. You know , that's absolutely true there. Tell us about your first trip to the region where one community member explained about how this smell determines where many people live. Yes.

S2: Yes. So during my first trip , um , we went out with a community member and I was not aware of all the complicated nuances of the communities living around the Salton Sea and the environmental justice issues around the Salton Sea. And in fact , I was there mostly to measure the water quality. But it really struck me that that community member really , um , tried to explain to me where she lived. She lived near the Salton Sea. And when she saw my look of confusion , she said , the poor people live around the Salton Sea because it stinks. And the people that can afford to live where it doesn't smell tend to be more affluent people. Hmm.

S1: Hmm. And it's a reflection of what happens in so many communities. Um , you know , your research highlights that the pollution impacts both the water and the air.

S2: So you have government agencies that are solely dedicated to water quality issues , and you have government agencies that are solely dedicated to air quality issues. Now , we do have presidents of certain groups , working groups that get formed to address inter-agency topics. Right now , we have groups like the Salton Sea Authority and the Salton Sea Conservancy , who are more focused on the ecosystem aspect of it. But that's a group that's not specifically dedicated to air or or water , right. So you could presumably form a new working group that would straddle both the air issues and the water issues , and that includes both tribal representation and intergovernmental agency representation as well as community representation. Yeah.

S1: Yeah.

S2: So we know that we have to remediate the water. We know that we have to remediate the land.

S1: Professor , thank you so much for the work that you're doing , and thanks for joining us.

S2: Thank you for inviting me.

S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.