Have you ever thought about whether certain things help or harm our environment? The Salton Sea can affect the environment in many ways but the biggest effect it can have on the environment is how the body of water is shrinking. With it shrinking comes a lot of other factors we have to take into consideration like declining water supply, salinity levels rising and high levels of nutrients that are then creating a lot of algal growth and not enough oxygen levels. Nobody has really taken into consideration the negative aspect of the body of water drying up. They seem to think that if they ignore the Salton Sea, sooner or later it’s going to be gone and so are all of our issues. According to Pacific Institute, “Since 2005, the surface elevation of the Sea has fallen…show more content… The Huffington Post claims, “That drying could release harmful elements like selenium and arsenic from the lakebed, which could spread “clouds of toxic dust across southern California” (Jauregui, 4/25/12). When the wind blows down in the desert, it carries some of the toxicities along with a horrible smell that can sometimes be smelt in Los Angeles which is 130 miles away from the Salton Sea. Another effect the Salton Sea has on our environment is on our wildlife. The main specie that is affected by the toxins in the Salton Sea are birds.They use the Salton Sea as a water source because there are other water sources that drain into the Salton Sea so all the birds “congregate” around this to get water. They also use this as a food source because the sea is so large and there is an abundance of fish that live in it. There are about four hundred different species that use the Salton Sea as a shelter or home. There are five different types of diseases that the birds can get infected with. The first one is called avian botulism which occurs during the Spring when the winds push the deoxygenated water to the top and the fish
