How thirsty cities could put salt on your fruit

As a lifelong Imperial Valley farmer, Linden Anderson knows well the dusty havoc a desert windstorm can dump on his crops. Gusts of dirt and sand so thick they halt traffic can instantly coat his 2,000 acres of mango trees in a layer of grit.

Now, he and other produce farmers here are concerned that the latest round of California's water wars will add an unsavory dose of salt to the wind whipping over their crops. If a pending proposal to divert 65 billion gallons of the Imperial Valley's irrigation water annually to San Diego goes through – the largest transfer of water from agricultural to municipal use in US history – the water line of the nearby Salton Sea would be lowered, allowing the wind to scour the exposed sea bed.

California's largest lake – at 376 square miles, bigger than both Lake Tahoe and Mono Lake in the north – is 30 percent saltier than the Pacific Ocean. But it is also one of the most productive fisheries in the world, a mecca of sports enthusiasts, and one of the last wetlands refuges for millions of migrating birds on the Pacific flyway from Canada to South America.

Located at the southernmost edge of California, the Salton Sea is also the geographic center of the latest Western water war. After years of taking more than its legal limit from the Colorado River, California is under pressure from neighboring states to reduce its long-term reliance on the river. Under state and federal agreements, California can continue to receive surplus water if it starts water conservation and diversion programs. The problem: The water that would be diverted from the Imperial Valley – about 300,000 acre-feet, or enough to serve 560,000 urban families annually – is crucial to the Salton Sea's already fragile health. Environmentalists and farmers fear the proposed transfer would seriously damage that health – perhaps irreparably. Water quality is already in decline from fertilizer-laden runoff from area farms. And if the fresh water that helps replenish and stabilize the Salton Sea is diverted to San Diego, salinity would increase, endangering both fish and birds. The diversion would also shrink the lake, exposing thousands of acres of salt- and chemical-laced sea-bottom.

"If the sea shrinks and the winds blow, you're going to get salt and toxic chemicals not just on my fruit and farm but all over the place for miles," says Mr. Anderson, of HMS Agricultural Corporation, which runs several farms in the region.

Conservative estimates say the sea would drop five feet, exposing a quarter- to half-mile wide ring of sea bed. Liberal estimates say the ring could be as wide as two miles – around the whole 35-mile-long by 15-mile-wide sea.

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