Valuing a Unique and Irreplaceable Ecosystem: A Study of California's Salton Sea
Abstract
The Salton Basin, located in Southern California near the Mexico border, is home to
the Salton Sea, California's largest lake. Neighboring the Sea are the Imperial,
Coachella, and Mexicali Valleys, fertile agricultural areas that produce many winter
crops. The Salton Sea is in danger of evaporating due to reduced inflow and rising
salinity. The Sea supports a diverse ecosystem of birds, fish, invertebrates and
microorganisms. It also offers recreational benefits including fishing, bird watching,
speed boating, and camping. If the Sea were to dry up, all of these benefits would be
lost. Economic consequences could also be severe. Tourism would cease, and a dry
lakebed could lead to massive clouds of dust that would hinder the agricultural
industry. This paper describes the importance of the Salton Sea as a unique and
irreplaceable resource, and offers different methods of assigning value to an
ecosystem. The future of the sea is discussed, with three possible courses of action:
allowing the Sea to evaporate, implementing a proposal by U.S. Filter, or moving
forward with the North Lake Alternative, a modified version of the U.S. Filter
proposal that has been approved for further research. The North Lake Alternative is
the most plausible choice, and would cause the least harm to the current ecosystem;
however, a recent discovery about the composition of the Salton Sea lakebed has
raised concerns about the fiscal feasibility of this plan. Regardless of which avenue is
taken, the Salton Sea is an essential resource that must be preserved. Missing page 26.