A struggling California region is suddenly poised to become very, very rich

Imperial County, a sprawling desert region three hours southeast of Los Angeles that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border, may not be what you would typically associate with Southern California.  

Home to ramshackle landmarks like Salvation Mountain, the Salton Sea and Bombay Beach, it’s the least populated county in the region with just 180,000 residents. But U.S. politicians are suddenly interested in this rural area for other reasons — namely, the wealth of lithium deep beneath its surface. The rare mineral used in batteries, now in particularly high demand with the rise of electric vehicles, could be enough to produce 375 million batteries for that use, according to a new report. 

Imperial County — which now touts itself as Lithium Valley — is sitting on an estimated 3,400 kilotons of lithium, according to the 2023 study authored by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The coveted mineral is mostly found in Australia, China and Chile, and U.S. officials predict that demand for this “critical” resource will skyrocket by 4,000% over the next several decades.   

In a region where 24.9% of children were living in poverty in 2022 and, while the median income for the county in 2021 was closer to $49,000, some towns have a median income below $2,500 per year, local officials believe this resource will uplift families for generations, all thanks to the strange primordial brew lurking thousands of feet beneath the surface.

Over the past several million years, sources such as Colorado River water, sediment and volcanic rocks likely introduced the rare mineral to the dry desert region, the Berkeley Lab report states. It’s so abundant, it could produce more than $7 billion worth of lithium carbonate per year, a 2020 report from the California Energy Commission reads, based on the 2020 price of $12,000 per ton. 

Currently, there are 11 geothermal plants situated along the Salton Sea that produce low-carbon energy, and BHE Renewables — which owns 10 of them — is trying to figure out how to use them to extract lithium. Per Politico, EnergySource Minerals, one of three companies spearheading lithium production by the Salton Sea’s southern shore, has said it plans to start mining in 2025. 

Recovering lithium from 1,500 feet below the earth’s surface is no simple task, Pat Dobson, a Berkeley Lab staff scientist, told SFGATE in a written statement. Geothermal production wells extract the lithium-rich brine from thousands of feet below the earth’s surface, and once the lithium is dissolved from the brine, the liquid is pumped back underground. 

Dobson described water consumption for the operation as a “main impact,” but when SFGATE asked for more information on where the water would come from and how much would be used, he declined to provide more details. When asked the same question, Robert Schettler, a press information officer for the Imperial Irrigation District, told SFGATE that the Colorado River is the region’s only water supply, and couldn’t determine how much water would be needed for large-scale mining operations. 

The Colorado River is a critical resource for the community, and provides water for most of the agriculture in the region, but it’s been dwindling over the years, CalMatters previously reported. Farmers have been pressured to conserve water for decades now, and it’s unclear what impact lithium mining operations may have in the future.   

There are plenty of other unknowns that the 180,000 residents living nearby will likely face, too. 

There’s been little research showing how these lithium mining operations could damage the Imperial County region’s water, air and indigenous cultural sites, according to a 2023 report from Earthworks, an environmental advocacy group. It’s still unclear how much freshwater would be needed to mine lithium on a commercial scale, but authors wrote that these operations are expected to use water from the Colorado River, which plays a vital part in restoring the shrinking Salton Sea, and they expect it to “exceed the freshwater currently allocated by the Imperial Irrigation District for non-agricultural use.” If the lake vanishes entirely, plumes of toxic dust particles could render parts of the Imperial and Coachella valleys and Mexico uninhabitable, experts warn. 

EnergySource Minerals estimated that its mining operation will consume 3,400 acre-feet of water per year, the Earthworks report said, which is over 1 billion gallons per year. 

It’s well known that children throughout the Imperial Valley suffer abnormally high rates of asthma, which is likely linked to the toxic air particles emanating from the Salton Sea’s receding lakebed.  

The operation could also impact sacred Native American sites. Most lithium reserves around the world are positioned on or near Indigenous lands, according to the Earthworks report, and Imperial Valley is no exception. This new mining operation would take place “in the footprint” of Lake Cahuilla, the ancestral land of multiple Indigenous tribes. Tribal leaders have previously voiced concern about desecrating Obsidian Butte, a blackened volcanic rock that’s considered sacred, the report said.

Despite the lingering concerns and unanswered questions surrounding the large-scale mining operation, it seems that the Imperial Valley community is mostly on board with it, according to public comments recorded in spring of this year.

According to a March press release from the county, lithium extraction will be taxed, and 80% of this new revenue stream is to go directly to the county. Senate Bill 125 mandated that the county spend at least 30% of the revenue on projects in local host communities. Tax revenue from lithium production could be as high as $30 million per year.   

“We need to be able to dream about this County and fully envision what it would look like if it were better for everyone and people want to come and join us,” said Sara Griffen, executive director of the Imperial Valley Food Bank, in a March 2023 public comment about proposed lithium taxes. 

“We have not been able to dream like that, because we could never afford it.”