Bombay
Beach is an actual place that sits on the banks of the Salton
Sea in southern California. The 35 mile long lake is a huge
migratory way station for birds because almost all of the wetlands
they used to stop at along the coast as they traveled up and
down the western seaboard were filled in for development. Also
known as Lake Mistake, this enormous body of water was formed
from 1905-1907 when the Colorado River burst through poorly
built irrigation controls south of Yuma, Arizona and flooded
the desert. Now it's fed by the surrounding Imperial Valley
agricultural water run-off and because of ingredients in it
like fertilizer has a very high bacterial count and not so much
oxygen. So fish and birds die off by the thousands and sometimes
cover the beaches. It's also saltier than seawater and getting
more so.
I
stumbled upon the place in 1998 and was first struck by the
smell. We were the only ones at the visitor's center and the
air felt like warm dirty socks. We pulled into the village of
Bombay Beach and drove around this godforsaken trailer-ville
that looked like a modern day ghost town. Only the flickering
lights of a couple TV's showed any sign of life. The beach was
lined with layers of orange and turquoise and chocolate colored
foam. Where you could see into the water pinky beige gunk waved
back. There were lots of rotted out houses and trailers submerged
out in the lake to about the 4 foot level. A rusted out delivery
truck was sunk in sand up to the dashboard. Dead fish lay along
the water's edge.
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