Could some one please give me a briefing on the water situation in Imperial Valley, CA?

Question

I'm doing a paper that came with rather vague directions. Basically, So I assume, I'm supposed to talk about the history and water use of Imperial Valley and maybe a bit about the land's natural environment.

Answer 1

Overall they are living on water that is brought in from other areas. This is show by the fact no significant growth happened until 1901 when water was brought in. Currently they use water that is sent from Utah, Colorado, Nevada, and Arizona via the the Colorado river and channels. The only large natural water feature is the Salton Sea, which is the second largest salt water lake in the western hemisphere after the Great Salt Lake.

Answer 2

rickodrums answer is not all accurate, the salt he is talking about does not come from the colorado river, it is in the land already around the salton sea, thats why the name , the sea flooded back along time ago from the mountains and the over flooded colorado which caused it to run across open land that alraedy was high in salt, thats how the sea was formed to begin with,  this happened again which created a salton sea, back in the 60s it wasnt so bad and was actually a resort town, we used to have to make reservations just to get in, now its a ghost town, i can tell you about all the fun and all night parties that went on, it was awesome, i still love the salton sea,, stinks bad though

Answer 3

Hi, Imperial Valley would be barren desert if it were not for the canals bringing in water from the Colorado River.  A growing(ha!) problem in the Valley is salinity- salt.  Keep in mind that the water at the point it is being diverted from the River has been used- and returned as either treated municipal wastewater or irrigation tail water (run-off from crop fields) many times. So, the salt problem is exacerbated because the higher the salt content, the greater the volume of water needed to keep the salt build-up in the soil below the root zone of the crops.  If the salt gets into the root zone, the crops will die.  For more info, try a search for Imperial Valley Irrigation District....good luck with your paper!