Field trip full of water, birds and sugar

Vic and I just returned from a three-day weekend in Yuma, Ariz., and Brawley. In case that sounds like an odd vacation, I should point out that it was not a holiday for us. Vic was working, leading his natural history class for senior citizens on a field trip. I tagged along to provide comic relief.

This outing was mainly a birding trip, but we learned about other things as well. At Yuma, we visited Imperial Dam, where water from the Colorado River is diverted into California’s All-American Canal and Arizona’s Gila Gravity Main Canal.

To conserve water that was leaching into the sandy soil, the U.S. government began lining the All-American Canal with concrete. When completed, this project will conserve water for farmers in California’s Imperial Valley. But it will reduce water that is available to Mexican farmers. Their agriculture depends upon shallow wells that are fed by seepage from the canals. The Mexican farmers won an injunction against the U.S. government to stop work, but an appeals court in San Francisco recently overturned the injunction.

We saw work continuing on the concrete canal liners as we drove along Interstate-8. Vic noted that the work was being done by the Kiewit Pacific Co., the same company that constructed the full tidal basin at Bolsa Chica.

Global climate change continues to impact the already parched Southwest, and population growth on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border puts increased pressure on precious water supplies. Battles over water rights are likely to continue long into the future as we outstrip the supply.

From Yuma, we traveled to Brawley. From there, we drove around on the dirt roads of the Imperial Valley agricultural district for two days. After nearly 30 years of leading birding trips to the Salton Sea, Vic knows those roads as well as the streets in Huntington Beach. He knows exactly where to go to find specific species of birds.

We communicated with other vehicles in our 10-car caravan by walkie-talkie. Vic called out, “Kestrel at 2 o’clock, red-tailed hawk on the telephone pole on the left, flock of glossy ibis flying in on the right.” That allowed most people in the caravan to know what the various birds were that we passed. Of course, we stopped at a number of hot spots to search for birds on foot as well.

While Vic was calling out birds, I identified the crops as we drove past. Farmers at the south end of the Imperial Valley grow alfalfa, which is made into hay, which is used to feed Holstein steers in feedlots. Holsteins are dairy cows, but a dairy cow must have a calf every year to remain in milk production. Some heifers (young female cows) are kept to replenish the herd, but males are castrated to turn them into steers. Those steers are destined for feedlots and the dinner table.

After hay has been harvested, the dry stubble is burned to return nutrients to the soil. Vic knows that mountain plovers frequent those fields, so we always cruise the newly burned areas.

Other fields grew lettuce, onions, cauliflower and broccoli. The fields of lettuce were beautiful, often with alternating reds and greens. The onions that are grown in the Imperial Valley are a variety called dehys. They are dehydrated and used in onion soup mixes. An onion field at harvest time can have an overpowering smell. Other aromatic fields are those of cauliflower and broccoli. After the harvesters are done, the remains of the plants are tilled back into the soil. Those fields really stink.

Many of the fields produce sugar beets. Although much of the sugar that we buy in stores comes from sugar cane, about 30% of the world’s sugar comes from beets. It can be used as white sugar for baking or in sweetened soft drinks.

The process of extracting sugar from sugar beets is fairly simple. Sugar beet roots are separated from the tops and hauled to the Holly Sugar Corporation near Brawley. There used to be a Holly plant in Huntington Beach to process the sugar beets that were grown here when our area was mainly agricultural. Now you have to travel to the Salton Sea to see a field of sugar beets.

To extract sugar, the roots of sugar beets are washed, sliced thinly and soaked in hot water for about an hour. It’s like making tea with a tea bag. The sugar diffuses out of the beet slices and into the water. Think of it as a cup of tea that weighs several hundred tons. The liquid is pressed out of the beet slices, which are dried and used for cattle feed.

The sugary liquid undergoes a carbonation process that precipitates out some of the impurities. The liquid then is concentrated in a multistage evaporator. The final step is boiling the concentrated sugar syrup in a boiler that holds about 60 tons. The resulting sugar crystals are spun out of the syrup and air-dried. The remaining syrup is used for cattle feed. Good thing those feedlots are so close by.

One of the fascinating sights at the Salton Sea is geothermal power generation. Ten power plants operate at the south end of the Salton Sea, pouring massive clouds of steam into the sky. Because this area is a former volcanic field, the magna is fairly close to the surface. To harness the heat of the magma, workers drill holes into the earth to a depth of a mile or two. Temperatures at that depth are an amazing 360 degrees C (680 degrees F).

Water is pumped down into the hole. It flashes back out as steam under pressure, which turns turbines to run generators.

The Salton Sea plants produce enough energy to power 100,000 homes. Southern California Edison is one of the buyers of this clean energy.

This trip provided a great opportunity to learn more about our water supply, one of our local food sources and renewable electricity generation. But the sweetest part was getting a date shake at the Oasis Date Gardens in Thermal on our way home.

VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and environmentalists. They can be reached at LMurrayPhD@gmail.com.