PLAGUES AND PLEASURES ON THE SALTON SEA
D: Chris Metzler, Jeff Springer (2004) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
A funny but horrifying postcard documentary, narrated by John Waters, about an evolving ecological train wreck: the perfect storm of ignorance, greed, bad planning, bad luck and the indifferent, unyielding power of nature converging around California's biggest inland body of water, the Salton Sea. Situated below sea level, just upwind from Palm Springs (bad news for Palm Springs), the sea was created by flooding from the Colorado River and polluted by runoff from nearby farms. Once thriving, promoted as California's Riviera, its main features today are the hulks of old boats and old businesses, 120-degree heat, water with a salt content higher than the ocean's, welfare recipients, crusty eccentrics, decay and dead fish. And with the salinity of the water increasing year by year, it's only going to get worse. Congressman Sonny Bono tried to do something about it, but then he ran into a tree. Sonny used to be the mayor of Palm Springs, too, of course. Maybe he knew which way the wind was blowing.
