Will a 'Lithium Rush' From California's Salton Sea Fund Its Environmental Remediation? (yahoo.com) 36
There's a polluted 343-square-mile lake known as "the Salton Sea," about 150 miles southeast of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times calls it California's "largest and most troubled lake," after a recent visit with biogeochemist Timothy Lyons.
But is it about to experience a change of fortune? "The big problem at the Salton Sea is intermingled with that organic brown layer on top — and to be honest, it's scary," said Lyons, 63. "It's loaded with pesticides and heavy metals — molybdenum, cadmium and selenium — that linger in greatest concentrations in deeper water... That should worry people, because the Salton Sea is shrinking and exposing more and more of this stuff to scouring winds that carry them far and wide," he added. "Our goals include mapping where these hazardous materials are located, and determining where they came from and what may become of them if trends continue."
For Lyons' research team, filling blanks in existing data is an obsession, and it could have significant implications at a time when the air practically crackles with a volatile mix of environmental danger and economic opportunities promised by ongoing efforts to tap immense reserves of lithium, a key ingredient of rechargeable batteries.... Clouds of salty, alkaline toxic dust containing heavy metals, agricultural chemicals and powdery-fine particulates linked to asthma, respiratory diseases and cancer are rolling off newly exposed playa, threatening the health of thousands of nearby residents. Delays and costs are mounting for many projects that were designed to be showcases of restoration and dust mitigation. Scientists say it's because the projects were developed without consideration for heat waves, severe droughts and water cutbacks due to climate change, or for the constantly evolving underlying geology at the hyper-saline landlocked lake at the southern end of the San Andreas Fault, where shifting tectonic plates bring molten material and hot geothermal brine closer to Earth's surface.
Now, large corporations investing in proposals to suck lithium out of the brine produced by local geothermal operations have revived hopes of jobs and revenue from land leases, with lithium recovery projects potentially supporting internships, education programs and environmental restoration projects for years to come.
The Times got an interesting quote from Frank Ruiz, a program director at the nonprofit environmental group Audubon California — a man who is also a member of the Lithium Valley Commission (lawmakers and community leaders trying to help guide decisions).
"If done correctly, it will elevate the region by creating jobs, benefit the state and the nation by making geothermal energy more affordable, and lay the groundwork for negotiations aimed at ensuring that some of the royalties from lithium production and related land leases are used to support dust reduction and environmental restoration projects."
Ruiz also says that one way or another, "The lithium rush at the Salton Sea cannot be stopped."
But is it about to experience a change of fortune? "The big problem at the Salton Sea is intermingled with that organic brown layer on top — and to be honest, it's scary," said Lyons, 63. "It's loaded with pesticides and heavy metals — molybdenum, cadmium and selenium — that linger in greatest concentrations in deeper water... That should worry people, because the Salton Sea is shrinking and exposing more and more of this stuff to scouring winds that carry them far and wide," he added. "Our goals include mapping where these hazardous materials are located, and determining where they came from and what may become of them if trends continue."
For Lyons' research team, filling blanks in existing data is an obsession, and it could have significant implications at a time when the air practically crackles with a volatile mix of environmental danger and economic opportunities promised by ongoing efforts to tap immense reserves of lithium, a key ingredient of rechargeable batteries.... Clouds of salty, alkaline toxic dust containing heavy metals, agricultural chemicals and powdery-fine particulates linked to asthma, respiratory diseases and cancer are rolling off newly exposed playa, threatening the health of thousands of nearby residents. Delays and costs are mounting for many projects that were designed to be showcases of restoration and dust mitigation. Scientists say it's because the projects were developed without consideration for heat waves, severe droughts and water cutbacks due to climate change, or for the constantly evolving underlying geology at the hyper-saline landlocked lake at the southern end of the San Andreas Fault, where shifting tectonic plates bring molten material and hot geothermal brine closer to Earth's surface.
Now, large corporations investing in proposals to suck lithium out of the brine produced by local geothermal operations have revived hopes of jobs and revenue from land leases, with lithium recovery projects potentially supporting internships, education programs and environmental restoration projects for years to come.
The Times got an interesting quote from Frank Ruiz, a program director at the nonprofit environmental group Audubon California — a man who is also a member of the Lithium Valley Commission (lawmakers and community leaders trying to help guide decisions).
"If done correctly, it will elevate the region by creating jobs, benefit the state and the nation by making geothermal energy more affordable, and lay the groundwork for negotiations aimed at ensuring that some of the royalties from lithium production and related land leases are used to support dust reduction and environmental restoration projects."
Ruiz also says that one way or another, "The lithium rush at the Salton Sea cannot be stopped."
One of the first videos I saw on youtube (Score:5, Informative)
This short film from 10 years ago really explained what happened there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re:One of the first videos I saw on youtube (Score:5, Informative)
There's more!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
If you want to cut through the fluff, skip to about 13 minutes in.
Long story short: tons of depleted uranium test munitions lie in and around Salton Sea, along with (maybe) a 160 kiloton nuke at the bottom of the sea itself. It's missing a key component needed for detonation, but there's still a lot of uranium in that bomb which is not your friend.
It's not clear if divers actually recovered the nuke. It's all classified, and reports on the location of the lost nuke are contradictory.
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Atoms (Score:3, Funny)
I avoid all chemicals because they contain atoms. You know what all atoms have, that they don't tell us about? Protons. You know what protons are? Nuclear. Like Hiroshima.
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You should also avoid anything you can't pronounce. If you have anything in your body like "hemoglobin" get rid of it.
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Ascorbic acid is an ingredient listed on a lot of food packages, and it sounds scary. Avoid it completely. Especially if you voted for the wrong party.
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I avoid all chemicals because they contain atoms. You know what all atoms have, that they don't tell us about? Protons. You know what protons are? Nuclear. Like Hiroshima.
Ascorbic acid is an ingredient listed on a lot of food packages, and it sounds scary. Avoid it completely. Especially if you voted for the wrong party.
I think you mean acerbic acid ...
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I avoid all chemicals because they contain atoms. You know what all atoms have, that they don't tell us about? Protons. You know what protons are? Nuclear. Like Hiroshima.
It’s even worse than you describe, it’s also a precursor to dihydrogen monoxide which has been found in the lungs and body of every dead person in history.
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Visit Arizona. Most of our lakes and rivers are free of dihydrogen monoxide.
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And if you believe that, I have shares in the Brooklyn Bridge that I will sell you cheap. Plus, I picked up some shares in the
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Heavy Metal. (Score:1)
They can always do heavy metal concerts there. They have all the heavy metals they want!
fun facts about Salton Sea (Score:2)
They say that the Salton Sea is the trigger point for The Big One. Any disturbance there such as geothermal or a great increase/decrease in the weight of the lake could initiate an earthquake.
The earthquake would be tiny at first, perhaps indistinguishable from the many that already occur there every year, but it would expand. It would spread north, growing as it moves, farther north then turning west, still growing, still west and growing and headed right toward Hollywood. By that time it would be a major
Re:fun facts about Salton Sea (Score:4, Informative)
The Salton Sea has frequent earthquake swarms. This June, for example, they had hundreds of quakes [sacbee.com] up to the non-small magnitude 5.3. Zero people died in the ensuing non-disaster.
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The earthquake would be tiny at first, perhaps indistinguishable from the many that already occur there every year, but it would expand. It would spread north, growing as it moves, farther north then turning west, still growing, still west and growing and headed right toward Hollywood. By that time it would be a major earthquake and cause mass destruction.
It will be a great day for science as experts from around the world arrive to study every aspect of the disaster. News media will go on for weeks with dramatic video and tales of woe. Construction work will abound to repair major and minor roadways and demolish fractured buildings. Water, natural gas, electricity and communication will be unavailable for millions. It may be years before a new Hollywood blockbuster movie can be produced.
The Salton Sea has frequent earthquake swarms. This June, for example, they had hundreds of quakes up to the non-small magnitude 5.3. Zero people died in the ensuing non-disaster.
Damnit, he got my hopes up and you dashed them.
There has to be some way to stop the next crappy Marvel movie...
"troubled lake"? (Score:2, Troll)
The Los Angeles Times calls it California's "largest and most troubled lake,"
This is a puddle created by a human engineering mistake.
The idea that somehow, once created, simply by existing means it needs to be 'saved' is asinine.
Re:"troubled lake"? (Score:5, Informative)
The lake existed for at least 40,000 years [wikipedia.org]. At times it's been a dry lake bed, at other times it's been a full lake.
It's problematic, not because of the water, but because of the sediment left behind over centuries (which blows lithium dust into LA). If the lake still had water today, the dust would not be blowing.
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Re: "troubled lake"? (Score:3)
Misleading.
The lake has not "existed for 40k years", it has existed (and dried up) many times in that 40k year span.
Puddles on sidewalks do the same thing; god help us when environmentalists decide every one of them must be saved every time it evaporates too.
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This article says we should do with the lake what society always does with the mentally ill: take advantage of them.
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The lake existed for at least 40,000 years [wikipedia.org]. At times it's been a dry lake bed, at other times it's been a full lake.
The current incarnation of the Salton Sea is the result of a man-made environmental accident:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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The "current incarnation" isn't what is causing the problem.
Chasing commodities is not smart. (Score:1)
Advocatus lacussalii (Score:2)
Clouds of salty, alkaline toxic dust containing heavy metals, agricultural chemicals and powdery-fine particulates linked to asthma, respiratory diseases and cancer are rolling off newly exposed playa, threatening the health of thousands of nearby residents.
I can envision a new arsenic-based toxic lifeform crawling out of this lake onto land. If it reaches Sacramento and mates with the state's famed bureaucrats, it will result in a new species of lawyer that will be able to sue any person in any court in the world, shrugging off all jurisdictional boundaries, and be unbeatable.
Let's see them come up with a vaccine against that.
If Meth could be from that pollution (Score:3)
Environment (Score:1)