Opinion: Coral Mountain La Quinta wave basin irresponsible in a desert
John Gamlin’s recent defense of his Coral Mountain wave basin resort in The Desert Sun (guest column, May 8) fails to address the main issue. Planning development according to historic water levels is extremely naive in the desert, and we have seen this story pan out before. In 1959, the North Shore Beach and Yacht Club opened on the shore of the Salton Sea — a massive lake created in the early 1900s when engineers accidentally flooded the ancient basin with diverted Colorado River water intended to irrigate the dry, fertile Imperial Valley.
-Written by Sydney Hayes, a student majoring in environmental studies and economics at Bowdoin College.