How does the Sea affect air quality?
At current elevation levels, the effect of the Sea on air quality is small, with blowing dust occurring only when lake levels drop a small amount seasonally and the winds are strong and from certain directions. However, because the Sea is so shallow, even minor reductions in lake elevations expose significant amounts of shoreline. If inflows are reduced by 200,000 acre feet or more, as much as 75 square miles of lake bed could be exposed. Not all or perhaps even most of those exposed sediments would cause problems. More information needs to be gathered to make better predictions. However, sediment conditions around the Sea are likely to be extremely variable and current exposed areas indicate that some areas will cause significant problems with blowing dust. Because both the Imperial and Coachella Valleys already exceed standards for PM10, a measure of small-sized blowing dust, further air quality declines will need to be addressed.
