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The first time I photographed the Salton Sea in Southern California, I viewed it as most visitors do. Dead fish on the shore and abandoned buildings with a post apocalyptic look.

But there was also something much more there. As a documentary photographer, I also saw a place of desolate and haunting beauty, in spite of its decline. I saw the realities (and failings) of state dust remediation pilot projects attempting to find solutions for the toxic dust filling the air.

This book documents the Salton Sea and remediation projects in 2018, the first full year after mandated water transfers to the lake ended. These water transfers began in 2003, with the intent to complete dust remediation projects to control the ever increasing dust caused by dry lake bed exposure before agreement ended in December of 2017. The projects were not completed.

California’s largest lake will now recede at an unprecedented rate, with no real solution for the looming health crisis in the Imperial Valley of California. – Debbie Bentley