While the brief of the studio, A Future Terrapolis, was to consider the environmental and cultural implications of lithium extraction in the Salton Sea, we identified the pitched fight over resources as a broader and more important issue beyond rare-earth metals. We considered the usage of water in the Salton Sea as a battle over water rights, political borders, and ecological sovereignty. Water usage, specifically freshwater usage, has grown dramatically over the last hundred years. Water availability is dwindling, but our use of water is not. Water usage in Imperial Valley, California, is already split between states and farmers, but as new parties such as lithium extractors begin to sequester water from a drying Colorado River, a new type of freedom from fresh water is required.
In Sea Water Cyborg: Proof of Concept in a Drying World, Imperial Valley has successfully undergone a shift from dependency on freshwater from the dwindling Colorado to integrated saltwater agriculture. This process is a system pioneered by Arizona scientist Dr. Carl Hodges by which multiple food sources, such as crustaceans, fish and halophytes, fuel and secondary materials are generated. Informed by Hodge's research, a phased forty-year approach to the Imperial Valley has been implemented.
● In phase 1, saltwater is gravity-fed from the Pacific Ocean into the freshwater Salton Sea to supplement water diversions from the Colorado River. To win-over critics, a small section of the Imperial Valley is sequestered as a proving ground for test crops, a process of growing and recycling nutrients from halophytes and crustaceans through mangrove forests and wetlands.
● In phase 2, the water from the Salton Sea is piped to a portion of the New and Alamo Rivers, so that test crops cover at least two-thirds of the Imperial Valley
● In phase 3, seawater is piped uphill to the border of the U.S and Mexico so that it can gravity flow back toward the Salton Sea. The existing riverbeds of the New and Alamo Rivers become the green lungs that filter the water coming off the farms, which ensures that the water is cleaned and processed before being recycled.
With the introduction of saltwater and reduction of freshwater to the agricultural practices in Imperial Valley, we had to consider the cascading effects on programming this environmental adjustment might have—both on people as well as on the nearby ecology. The new saltwater regime requires novel methods of research, testing, production, and living, as well as new opportunities for recreation and tourism in the area in relation to the salt rivers and re-emergent ecologies. This experiential landscape brings visitors and residents above, on and into the water via multiple channels, and showcases the agricultural and aquacultural diversity of the valley. The shift from freshwater to saltwater agriculture allows for economic investment and renewed attention to the region that spans beyond its lithium extraction past and offers a new path toward ecological adaptation and sovereignty. Without diverting the Colorado River’s freshwater and re-allocating it to its native waterbed, an ecological renaissance on the Colorado Delta might allow for new relationships between Mexico and the United States and the dissolution of the political border between the countries. This built adjustment considers a re-attunement to water scarcity from the Colorado River and provides a model for how this process might be adapted to other water-deprived communities.