Whenever I hear "Salton Sea" I immediately think of this underrated Val Kilmer movie. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0235737/
I like your approach here where you are on the fence but provide enough evidence to explain why you were pushed to one side of the argument... yet you leave room for someone to disrespectfully disagree. It will be interesting to see if there is a private group that steps up to save it.