Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   she hacked you (ekis@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 24-Jan-2025 13:12:41 JST she hacked you

   the california aqueduct below enables southern california (SC) habitability; it is an engineering wonder (bc so bad, it makes you wonder)

   the demand never satisfied caused towns to be abandoned and rivers run dry

   this, combined with the eco-disaster that is the central valley (CV)

   over-fertilization is actively salting the soil, attempts to fix it caused mass die-offs in the salton sea

   over-pumping CV aquifer caused land sinkage in areas

   calling this unsustainable is an understatement

   • Embed this notice
     she hacked you (ekis@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 24-Jan-2025 13:20:39 JST she hacked you

     in reply to

     now just imagine vegas

   • Embed this notice
     she hacked you (ekis@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 24-Jan-2025 13:53:34 JST she hacked you

     in reply to

     the central valley likely has some of the best soil on the planet. it is a valley between the sierras, ancient mountains, and the pacific range, which are very new mountains that have recently pushed up out of the ocean

     when it rains, sediment from both ranges settles in what used to be a flood plain. over the time, this combination has created an incredibly fertile soil

     soo, naturalich, that wasn't good enough, so for marginally more yield use of fertilizer that raises soil salinity started

   • Embed this notice
     she hacked you (ekis@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 24-Jan-2025 15:37:09 JST she hacked you

     in reply to

     spot the positive feedback loop?

     as the soil becomes more salty, the soil's ability to retain+uptake water is reduced

     and so, same plant requires more water to grow

     CV problem is complex as it is 1% of US farmland but 8% of production. And the type of the soil is the largest contributing factor

     a plan devised:

     pump water to saturate the soil to try to wash out the salt

     and the leaders of SC thought, well the salton sea is already salty and so the agricultural runoff was dumped in it

   • Embed this notice
     Cristin Pescosolido (rocketdyke@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 24-Jan-2025 15:46:22 JST Cristin Pescosolido

     in reply to

     @ekis Hey there, I know soil salinity in the central valley is a huge issue (as is the rapidly dropping water table caused by over-pumping,) but the central valley is separated from the Salton Sea by about 200 miles and two mountain ranges.

     Can you clarify how the water from the central valley (not the Imperial Valley) ended up in the Salton Sea?

   • Embed this notice
     she hacked you (ekis@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 24-Jan-2025 15:47:57 JST she hacked you

     in reply to

     • Cristin Pescosolido

     @rocketdyke Yes, there is a system that is the current solution, which I will talk about and Ill try to tie in the Salton sea story more, because its pretty incredible.