Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea, a brilliant, quirky documentary film by Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer with narration by John Waters, explores the Salton Sea in the USA, once known as the “California Riviera”, and now considered one of America’s worst ecological disasters.
The subject of the film are the communities around the little known Salton Sea, more than 35 miles long and 15 miles wide, an accidentally human-made lake located in Imperial Valley, about 50 miles south of Palm Springs. Once revered for its warm waters, the community is now home to a dwindling eccentric population, evaporating waters, plummeting property prices, and a massive annual fish die off.
Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea tells a fascinating tale of human error and indifference. The Salton Sea was accidentally created by an engineering error in the early 1900s and reworked into a luxury holiday destination in the 1950s. At the height of the Salton Sea popularity, there were thousands of fishermen on the sea every day, celebrities visiting, yacht clubs, water-skiing and boat events. However, the good times didn’t last long and after a series of hurricanes, floods from nearby agricultural runoff and massive fish die-offs, the American jetsetters and sun seekers (and the government) abandoned the Salton Sea communities.
Today, the Salton Sea is in a rather troubled state, with no plan or funding to help deal with the acidification of the water, full of dilapidated buildings and abandoned businesses, extremely low property values and with fish dying by the thousands each year.
On one scorching day, more than 7.6 million fish died due to lack of oxygen in the water.
When the water warms up in the summer months, the algae bloom intensifies and the oxygen levels decrease in the water. On one scorching day, more than 7.6 million fish died due to lack of oxygen in the water. Avian botulism remains a common problem when the fish become toxic and the pelicans eat them. The Parks Department patrols every year to treat the sick birds and recovery rate is now about 70%. However with almost 95% of California wetlands already destroyed, there is simply no place for the birds to go in California except the Salton Sea.
The filmmakers have carefully captured the hope, pride, whimsy and complexity of the residents of Salton Sea...
The Salton Sea’s future also remains uncertain due to “water transfer” issues that are taking place in California. Whereas local farms once let excess water drain into the Salton Sea, now the excess water is diverted to San Diego and Los Angeles. The Salton Sea story, from start to finish, is also an interesting look at America’s wasteful and careless approach to fresh water preservation and security.
The story is told through a series of interviews with the tenacious and good-natured local people waiting for the sweet times to return and archive television footage, painting a rather compelling tale of an abandoned community. However, the filmmakers have carefully captured the hope, pride, whimsy and complexity of the residents of Salton Sea – an accepting community made up of aging nudists, religious zealots, unwed mothers on welfare, real estate speculators, mooning immigrants, retirees, landsharks, hard drinkers and people that can no longer afford to move anywhere else.
“People don’t know anything about this place,” remarks one resident. “Just come once and you’ll become an advocate,” explains another. But perhaps it is the words of the zany mooning Ukrainian who best captures the situation, “With all the money America has and it doesn’t put any into cleaning up this sea – shame on America”.
A brilliant, riveting must-see film that captures the mythology of the American dream.
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