World News

The Salton Sea is smellier than ever and worsening people’s asthma

Published

1 month ago

August 6, 2024

Five years ago, Lisa Clark and her husband left her hometown of El Centro for Niland, a small town of 500, in search for more affordable housing. But now they’re paying a hidden cost for living just two miles southeast of the Salton Sea.

“I’ve been having very bad asthma lately,” the 56-year-old manager of the Oasis Mobile Village RV Park said. Before, she’d need to use only one inhaler a year; since moving to Niland, she’s been using three. “It’s getting worse, and my husband’s been experiencing the same effect. Our health seems [to be] declining.”

The air quality is notoriously bad near the Salton Sea. As California’s largest lake has continued to evaporate, it’s become saltier and dustier, causing breathing problems for locals like Clark. Alongside the health problems is what she describes as a “putrid dead smell” emanating constantly from the water.

A soon-to-be published study by UC Riverside shows that the Salton Sea’s rotting odors have become a yearlong nuisance for residents in cities near the lake. The South Coast Air Quality Management District recently issued another odor advisory for parts of the Coachella Valley just north of the Salton Sea, a warning that covered the last six days.

Why does the Salton Sea smell so bad?

Several factors have contributed to this persistent stink, said Caroline Hung, a doctoral candidate and researcher in the Lyons Biogeochemistry Lab at UC Riverside.

For starters, the Salton Sea is very polluted, Hung said. “It’s a terminal lake, which means things go in, but they don’t come out.”

A flock of birds flies over the Salton Sea.

Agricultural runoff from nearby farms deposits fertilizer in the lake, causing algae to bloom rapidly in a process called eutrophication. When the algae decays, it consumes oxygen, making the lake hypoxic — a dead zone without oxygen to support marine life.

The nuisance of the rotten-egg smell is a byproduct of bacteria producing hydrogen sulfide during decomposition. Usually, thermal layers of the lake trap those odors beneath the surface, Hung said, and residents in the Coachella Valley would smell the lake only during hot summer days. But in recent years, the lake has become shallower, dropping more than 10 feet in the last 20 years, which has caused those layers to mix more often and the hydrogen sulfide scent to permeate the area year-long.

Is the stink dangerous? No and yes

Fortunately the stink itself is not a toxin, said Scott Epstein, who oversees air quality assessments for the Southern Coast Air Quality Monitoring District. “Hydrogen sulfide exposure is a bit more of a nuisance in that it can cause headaches or nausea, but we don’t expect it to cause any sort of long-term health effects,” Epstein said.

But researchers have found that there is still something in the dust that is causing higher rates of asthma among people living near the Salton Sea. Dr. David Lo, director of UC Riverside’s Bridging Regional Ecology, Aerosolized Toxins, and Health Effects Center, said the culprit isn’t actually the chemicals in agricultural runoff.

“The major toxic effect is coming from these bacterial toxins that we are seeing in the dust,” Lo said. “Things like heavy metals and pesticides may be a concern, but they aren’t really at high enough levels where their levels in the dust are going to cause disease.”

People are silhouetted on the Salton Sea.

As the Salton Sea has become a fertilized petri dish, the prevailing winds have pushed aerosolized bacteria south to communities in the Imperial Valley where people have complained of respiratory issues.

It’s less clear if the air quality of the lake has affected local wildlife. There simply aren’t enough studies, said Jonathan Shore, manager at the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge.

But we do know that the Salton Sea’s bacteria have also killed the lake’s fish by depleting its oxygen and increasing its salinity. In 1999, The Times reported that as many as 8 million fish were dying per day and that the native tilapia population in the Salton Sea was nearly wiped out.

“When there was a vibrant fish population in the sea, you would see a lot of pelicans and cormorants and other fish-eating birds,” Shore said. “Many of those are not around the Salton Sea anymore.”

Are there any solutions?

A state panel rejected a plan in 2022 to revitalize the Salton Sea by infusing the lake with desalinated ocean water, and residents — many of them from low-income and marginalized communities — have been left in limbo.

But Hung said she has some hope that the lithium deposits, a mile below the Salton Sea, could be the key to revitalizing the lake. Silicon Valley industries have already begun flocking to the lake for the precious mineral that is essential for the batteries in electric vehicles.

As the lithium draws a new wave of workers into the area, they’ll quickly discover that “it’s just not a pretty place to live,” Hung said. “It puts the Salton Sea environmental issues in the spotlight.”

In the meantime, Epstein advises residents to check air quality regularly through the AQMD website and suggests that they follow best practices when pollution is particularly bad.

“Staying inside with your windows and doors closed, minimizing heavy outdoor exertion, potentially wearing an N-95 mask if you have to be outside, running an air purifier or an air conditioner can all help reduce exposure,” Epstein said.

Shore lives just south of the Salton Sea in Brawley with his wife and two children. He worries constantly about the air quality and tries to mitigate its impact in their household.

“I have air filters in almost every room of my house. I change them frequently,” Shore said. “Changing the filters is expensive. It’s something that I prioritize and can afford, but I recognize that many people cannot.” In Brawley, the median income is $56,000 per household and nearly a quarter of families live in poverty.

Clark’s cost-cutting move to Niland has proven ironic. Now that her household medical bills have doubled, she said, it costs as much to live in Niland as it did in El Centro.

“We’re discussing where we would move,” Clark said of conversations with her husband as they consider leaving California for Oregon, Colorado or Utah. “We’re still up in the air about that.”

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World News

Lucy Letby victims’ families upset at ‘innocence’ claims

Published

52 mins ago

September 9, 2024

Paul Burnell

A solicitor representing the families of six victims of Lucy Letby said speculation about the safety of the nurse’s conviction was “upsetting” for all of her clients.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Tamlin Bolton said: “I can’t stress enough how upsetting that has been for all of the families that I represent.”

Letby was jailed for the rest of her life for the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of seven others at the Countess of Chester hospital.

An inquiry into how Letby was able to commit her crimes is set to begin on Tuesday.

Ms Bolton said the families wanted to “make sure they put their voice across,” but added that they were “restricted by wanting to keep themselves confidential and private”.

“So it’s a really difficult challenge for them to try and avoid social media, avoid the reporting about it.”

Ms Bolton said it was distressing for child relatives of Letby’s victims to see the speculation online.

The solicitor later told BBC Radio 4: “The families are devastated by the reporting at the moment. It is the families that are going through this, continuing to go through this in its enormity and sincerity.

“They are the ones still raising children now, who will have to explain to them one day exactly what happened to them as children or their siblings on that unit.

“If you are going to give an expert opinion on something and hold yourself out as an expert, it’s really important that you have all of the information before you make that declaration or you give that opinion.

“Because anything else outside of that is simply speculation and it would be unfortunate to fall prey to the same trap that you are being critical of when you reference the jury’s decision and the decision of the Court of Appeal.”

Ms Bolton also said said her clients felt there were “still gaps” in their understanding of what happened.

She said: “The duty of candour between the hospital and the parents is one of the key issues of the [Lucy Letby] inquiry: how they were told about what had happened to their children, when they were told and when they should have been informed.

“For a number of the parents, they weren’t even aware that their children had suffered any kind of collapses or incidents on that unit until they were contacted by the police.

“So it’s really important that that’s made clear to them and they can see the full picture, the full story of what happened, particularly given what we’d heard in the press following the criminal trial about the consultants’ efforts to try and raise their concerns about Letby.”

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World News

Hollywood Bowl cancels show after power outage amid L.A. heat wave

Published

9 hours ago

September 9, 2024

Times staff

In a weekend marked by power outages due to extreme heat, the Hollywood Bowl had to cancel its Sunday program after the historic venue lost electricity.

No details were available about the cause of the power outage or how long it was supposed to last.

On the social media platform X, Hollywood Bowl officials said “if a new date for this performance can be confirmed, details will follow and tickets for the original date will be valid for the new performance date.”

Grouplove and Tiny Habits were scheduled to perform.

Both the Los Angleles Department of Water and Power and Southern California Edison reported scattered outages this week, hitting such areas as University Park near USC, Echo Park, Northridge and Valley Glen.

The National Weather Service in Oxnard said that “dangerously hot conditions” would continue in the region through Monday.

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World News

Heat to blame as thousands are without power across San Diego County

Published

12 hours ago

September 9, 2024

Anna Ashcraft

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — The heat wave scorching Southern California will continue at least another day and the power grid is working hard to keep up.

The National Weather Service (NWS) reports the record-breaking high temperatures will continue through Monday night for all areas of San Diego County.

VIDEO: Hail falls from sky in Valley Center amid isolated storms

San Diego’s valley areas, including Santee, El Cajon, Escondido, La Mesa, Poway and San Marcos, are under an excessive heat warning until 8 p.m. Monday with temperatures expected in the 100s to 110s.

While San Diego’s coastal areas are under heat advisories through 8 p.m. Monday — San Diego, Oceanside, Vista, Chula Vista, Carlsbad, Encinitas and National City. NWS says high temperatures are expected in the uppers 80s and low 90s near the coast, and 90s to 100 degrees just a few miles inland.

NWS forecast for Southern California on Monday as heat warnings remain in place (Photo: National Weather Service)

As San Diego’s power grid works to keep up with the demand from the record-breaking temperatures, tens of thousands of people across the county were without power Sunday.

A San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) spokesperson told FOX 5/KUSI Sunday afternoon they believe the heat is related to the mass power outages across the county, however they are still investigating the cause.

The spokesperson also took the chance to thank their customers for being patient and said SDG&E crews are working around the clock in the heat to bring back power to all those impacted.

Southern California heat wave brings record temperatures to these areas

At one point Sunday, more than 10,000 people were without power in the Jamacha area, according to SDG&E.

SDG&E's outage map shows power outages across San Diego County Sunday as the record-breaking heat continues to scorch the region (Photo: SDG&E) — SDG&E’s outage map shows power outages across San Diego County Sunday as the record-breaking heat continues to scorch the region (Photo: SDG&E)

As of 5 p.m. Sunday, the SDG&E outage map is reporting the following outages across San Diego County:

San Juan Capistrano
City Heights/ Chollas Creek/ Oak Park
University Heights/ North Park/ Normal Heights
Granite Hills/ Bostonia/ E El Cajon
N Vista
Escondido
El Cajon
City Heights/ Chollas Creek/ Oak Park
City Heights/ Chollas Creek/ Oak Park
University Heights/ North Park/ Normal Heights
Fletcher Hills/ El Cajon
Blossom Valley/ El Monte
Lemon Grove
NE Escondido/ Dixon Lake/ Daley Ranch
University Heights/ North Park/ Normal Heights
Lemon Grove
La Presa/ Spring Valley/ Rancho San Diego

SDG&E reports most of these outages are weather related while the rest remain under investigation.

Meanwhile, many areas across Southern California have been experiencing severe weather amid the high temperatures. Parts of the county this weekend have seen thunderstorms with high winds, heavy rain and hail.

If your power goes out during an extreme heat event, there are several steps you can take to stay cool.

According to the CDC, residents can dress in lightweight clothing, use battery-powered fans to cool your home, stay hydrated, reduce activity, take cool showers, keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed to preserve food, close blinds and curtains to help keep out the sun, along with finding alternative ways to prepare food like grilling outside.

Call 800-CDC-INFO for more information on what to do during a power failure in hot weather.

Those in San Diego County impacted by the power outages can find more information, check the status of an outage and report an outage with SDG&E’s outage map.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.

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