Water Education Foundation

The empty waterpark in the on the way to Las Vegas

Posted by: Maven on June 18, 2007 at 10:13 pm

I recently took a trip out to Las Vegas, and along the way, I came across a water park out in the middle of nowhere that, each time I have passed it, always seems to be closed. It’s called “Rock-A-Hoola”, and it’s located in Newberry Springs, which is a few miles east of the agricultural inspection station, about halfway between Las Vegas & Los Angeles.

So I came home and looked it up on the internet and found out some information. Opened in 1962, the park was located next to a man-made lake named Lake Dolores, and was built as part of a campground for those who like to play in desert – off-road racing, motorcycles, and and the like. Over the years, it gradually grew in scope to something beyond what it had been intended for. The rides were faster and more thrilling then the usual waterparks of the time.

The park reached the peak of its popularity in the late 1970′s & early 1980′s, but experienced some downturns and eventually closed towards the end of the 1980′s. The park sat vacant for many years until being purchased. It was remodeled reopened under new management in 1996, but due to financial issues and a lack of interest, it was closed by 1998.

The property was sold again in 2001, renovated and reopened in 2002, lasting for two seasons before closing yet again. An employee who was off-duty had an accident on one of the slides and successfully sued the park for workman’s compensation. The park has not been open since 2004.

The fate of the park currently is unclear.

For more information:

For the Quartz City blog with pictures, click here. For more pictures, click here.

For the Wikipedia article, click here.

And, if you’ve read this far, perhaps you’d be interested to know that Zzyzx Road, located about 8 miles outside of Baker, formerly led to the Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Resort. The health resort was run by an evangelist who delivered sermons over loudspeakers at least twice a day and who sold treatments promising miraculous cures for all manner of ailments, including hemorrhoids and baldness. The BLM evicted the owners and closed the spa in 1974. The site is now occupied by the California State University’s Desert Studies Center. To find out more, click here for the Wikipedia article.

June 18, 2007 · Filed Under General Water Issues

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A virtual tour of the Salton Sea through the Blogosphere …

Posted by: Maven on June 10, 2007 at 6:34 am

$9 billion restoration plans, agricultural run-off, bird-watching and mud volcanoes … are you wondering what this place must be like? Sit back and take a virtual trip through the eyes of the Blogosphere by following these links….

Here is a great National Geographic story to start off our virtual tour: If I didn’t know better, this would seem the perfect place to toss a beer can, bury nuclear waste, or hop in a big monster truck and drive wherever the hell I want. I am standing 227 feet below sea level on the desert shore of California’s largest lake and this country’s strangest backwater: the Salton Sea. It’s prettier from afar, a broad blue lens lapping at the base of rust red mountains. Up close the beach, if you can call it that, isn’t sand but layer upon layer of barnacles and bones from the millions of fish that have expired here in mass die-offs over the years. The blue water is an illusion as well, a reflection of the desert sky. The sea actually looks like dark beer, and carries more than a whiff of sulfuric decay. Gobs of foam line the shore. Stringy mats of algae float in it as if it were some kid’s science project gone horribly wrong. Just the place for a swim.

After reading that, don’t you wonder what this place looks like? here is a great blog with a short video: do be patient, it takes a little longer to download, but well worth it: click here.

There are a lot of abandoned buildings out there, and asphaltwanderer has taken quite a few of them, even donning a mask to go inside some to get the pictures: Click here for part 1 and click here for part 2.

Here’s a blog with a link to a YouTube clip of the movie, Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea. The 1-hour documentary will be aired on the Sundance channel later this month; click here for the schedule.

June 10, 2007 · Filed Under Aquafornia News & Exclusives, Salton Sea

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The Blogosphere: A little on the Delta

Posted by: Maven on June 10, 2007 at 6:33 am

The shutdown on the delta pumps has not gone completely unnoticed in the blogosphere.

Endangered Species Act unconstitutional? Assemblyman LaMalfa of Butte County (Northern California) apparently think so, in his commentary written for the Flash Report. Until we build or augment new water storage and water conveyance, most Californians will have their water tap flowing, or not, subject to the whim of enviro groups and “emergency court actions.” Since the Endangered Species Act has been shown to trump all property rights [remember those pesky things, anti-eminent domain reform people?] as well as most of the rest of the Constitution, place your bets on more highly expensive, crisis driven remedies. While you watch your water being taken from you, contemplate the defeat of eminent domain reform legislation as well as defeat of new water storage efforts, as the water delivery trucks on urban freeways try to keep up with demand in urban neighborhoods.

Even New England has heard about the pumps shutdown, and here is what the New England Patriot Blog has to say: The basic premise of environmentalism, that we should protect and conserve the planet, is sound. However, the movement itself is lead by a radical contingent that refuses to recognize that mankind’s needs supersede those of the environment. In their minds, no price is too high for human beings to pay if they can save a toad. California is grappling with just such a contingent of rabid environmentalists. An endangered smelt is being sucked into water pumps that provide water for millions of state residents. The environmentalists’s answer? Shut them down. Who cares if millions of people don’t have water, right? The smelt come first. … If more fish die until a better solution is found, so be it because cutting off the water supply to millions of people in the middle of summer simply isn’t an option. These people need a serious reality check.”

Thankfully, here’s a blogger (Mono Blog) who has a good grasp on the intracacies of the Delta situation: State cuts off Delta pumps. This whole situation pisses me off to no end. Back in December, the fish populations in the Delta were dropping to crisis levels and no one knew for sure why. Delta smelt were of particular concern, as they’re an indicator species that had previously been very common and their population was declining unbelievably fast.

June 10, 2007 · Filed Under Aquafornia News & Exclusives

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The Blogosphere: Of Salton Sea and Smelt

Posted by: Maven on June 3, 2007 at 11:32 pm

So much has happened in Aquafornia this week, with the Salton Sea plan being released and the Delta pumps being shut off, the Aqua Blog Maven is simply reeling through the blogosphere …

Joe, the Salton Sea Realtor, is conducting a poll. Do you want to save the Salton Sea? Click here to vote! And while we’re hanging out on Realtor Joe’s blog, check out his pictures of the Salton Sea area under construction – click here. Not sure how recent the jet skiers are. Last time Aqua Blog Maven was there, getting near it was difficult on the nasal passages. Let’s just say a romp in the waves just was not in the equation…. The Salton Sea area is definitely one of many textures; Deann, a photography student, took these pictures recently out at the Salton Sea – click here to visit Deann’s blog.

Ron’s Log has a write up with a .pdf of the proposed Salton Sea restoration plan, with plenty of comments from his readers.

Some level-headed thinking here: Audobon California weighs in on the Salton Sea restoration plan, saying It would be a big victory for birds and wildlife except that it also includes two lakes primarily for recreation and development that triple the cost and pose enormous risks to the environment. The money and water needed for these recreational lakes could sink the whole restoration plan unless the habitat and air quality provisions are funded and implemented first.

Well, enough of the Salton Sea for now. Let’s travel northward, and find out what’s being blogged about in the smelt vs. the Delta pumps. The Technocrat blog has noted the shutdown of the pumps; the most interesting thing about this post is the first comment: This has been an issue forever. SoCal needs the water but the people in the SF Bay Area get absolutely no benefit from sending the water down there except higher taxes and a messed up delta system. Folks in SoCal don’t even try to conserve water and build new housing developments like its going out of style so there is an ever increasing demand for water. My favorite new tactic they’ve come up with in the rhetoric war is claiming Arizonians are stealing their water from the Colorado River, pretty funny if you ask me. So if this thing sticks the only real option is to take more water out of the Colorado and have some interstate water battles. Ought to get interesting. The Aqua Blog Maven thinks the commentor has a good point: conservation just doesn’t seem to be part of the equation of SoCal living, but building lots of houses certainly is!

Here is a blog with a somewhat different point of view: Cheat Seeking Missiles Blog notes the Delta pump shutdown due to the fish and says None of this would be happening were it not for these things: 1. Lawsuits by the Center and other eco-freak law firms posing as environmental groups that challenged Delta pumping on the grounds that it was harmful to the Delta Smelt, and 2. The failure in the early 1980s of a measure to build the Peripheral Canal, which would have brought water to SoCal and the Valley by circumventing the fragile Delta ecosystem. I could add a third point, that the Center found a liberal judge crazy enough to go along with these shenanigans, but that’s so obvious it hardly deserves a bullet of its own.

Yes, the Aqua Blog Maven is detecting rumblings that a new version of a Peripheral Canal is needed … Dan Walters, columnist for the Sacramento Bee, wrote this for today’s opinion section:

The problem is not that the State Water Plan — a complex of dams, reservoirs and canals — was built, but that it was not completed, thanks to environmental groups and San Joaquin Valley farmers. They persuaded voters in 1982 to reject construction of the Peripheral Canal, which would have transported Sacramento River water around the Delta and allowed the estuary to exist in a more natural, fish-friendly state.

The farmers wanted the canal with fewer environmental safeguards while the enviros were worried that with the plumbing in place, the state would have dammed North Coast rivers — even though, privately, many environmental leaders acknowledged that the Peripheral Canal would have improved the Delta habitat.

The state’s population has grown since 1982 by at least 12 million people, most of whom are dependent on water from the California Aqueduct. Turning off the pumps to save a few smelt does not alter the fact that something like the Peripheral Canal is still needed, along with more water storage to smooth out the peaks and valleys of water supply.

With the pumps shut down, hopefully pressure will mount to actually do something to fix the Delta. Is the state ready for another Peripheral Canal measure on the ballot?

June 3, 2007 · Filed Under Aquafornia News & Exclusives

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