The Salton Sea, California. (Report and Map Released by the Geological Survey for Inspection. )--Lands which have been flooded during periods of high water may usually expect quick relief when the rivers recede. However, where the flooded lands are below sealevel a most unusual condition is created.
During i9o 7 heroic measures finally stopped the overflow of the Colorado River into Imperial Valley, Calif., but not until a lake. know11 as Salton Sea, had been formed, covering 33o,ooo acres to a maximum depth of 79 feet, containing enough water to cover I6,OOO,OOO acres to a depth of one foot. As the surface of this lake was I94 feet below sea-level, there was no place to which the water could drain, and were it not for nature's pump--evaporation--the lake would probably be nearly the same to-day as it was in I9O7 . As a result of evaporation, however, the lake receded until by I92O it covered only I7O,OOO acres. Since I92o the lake has been fairly stable, due to inflow of natural drainage and a large volume of seepage and waste water from irrigated lands in Imperial Valley, but wtmt of the future? As the lands under and around the lake have economic value, it has seemed advisable to make some sort of a prophecy as to what future conditions are likely to be.
During i925 the Interior Department, through the Geological Survey, made a topographic survey of the Salton Sea, and during I927 a study of the problem. A report has recently been prepared bv George F. Holbrook, an assistant engineer of the Geological Survey, which contains a brief history of Salton Sea, describes the conditions which surround the lake, and concludes that in order to evaporate the amount of water that may be wasted into Salton Sea under conditions of ultimate irrigation development, an average water-surface area of 23%ooo acres will be necessary. This corresponds to a lake surface of 228 feet below sea-level or some 20 feet higher than the present lake surface. The report will not be published but, with the maps, may be examined in manuscript form at the office of the Geological Survey in Washington, D. C.