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Travel Photography > Desert Southwest > Slab City
The New River flows north from the city of Mexicali, crosses the border and pours into the Salton Sea. It is the most polluted waterway in the United States, and some people blame that on the fact that it originates in Mexico. The truth is muddier. Some of the pollution - human excrement, chemicals, fertilizer - comes from Mexicali. The rest come from the vast array of agriculture-related industry in the Imperial Valley, which surrounds the southern part of the Salton Sea.
Millions of pounds of fertilizer. Industrial waste. Floating clouds of phosphates riddle the river.
The New River is so polluted that when a Mexican guy was found dead in it, they first thought he was a burn victim. Rather, the river melted him
You know how when you see an ad for Donald Trump Cologne, and your nose wrinkles. Imagine twenty times that, and you don't even know how bad the New River stinks.
The New River is so polluted, that when Mexicans swim it to escape Mexico, U.S. authorities are more worried they'll spread disease than that they'll illegally cross the border. Cholera, hepatitis, salmonella, typhoid, e-coli. Even tuberculosis, which may account for the fact that tuberculosis in the Imperial Valley is the highest in the country.
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The New River collects pollution all along its path from Mexico to the Salton Sea.
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