“I can’t breathe”:
People living near California’s Salton Sea were used to experiencing unpleasant odors coming off the lake in the late summer. But now, according to new research, that smell seems to be blanketing the area for almost half the year.
The stench, caused by high hydrogen sulfide levels that emanate from the decaying, rapidly shrinking sea, has been detected in higher frequency for as many as five or six months per year as opposed to just once a year, according to a new study from UC Riverside that was first reported on by the Palm Springs Desert Sun.
The research looked at 20 years of data from the area to analyze why the smell is persisting and found that it’s a combination of the lake’s massive water loss in recent years, lower oxygen levels and an increase in algae production, among other factors. These conditions, plus the typically hot summer, make it ripe for the smell to permeate more often, rather than just at one time a year, said doctoral student Caroline Hung of the Lyons Biogeochemistry Lab at UCR’s department of Earth and planetary sciences, who helped prepare the research.
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/salton-sea-smells-more-new-research-shows-19616340.php