Lithium fuels hopes for revival on California's largest lake

Demand for electric vehicles has shifted investments into high gear to extract lithium from geothermal wastewater around California's dying Salton Sea

CALIPATRIA, Calif. -- Near Southern California’s dying Salton Sea, a canopy next to a geothermal power plant covers large containers of salty water left behind after super-hot liquid is drilled from deep underground to run steam turbines. The containers connect to tubes that spit out what looks like dishwater, but it's lithium, a critical component of rechargeable batteries and the newest hope for economic revival in the depressed region. Demand for electric vehicles has shifted investments into high gear to extract lithium from geothermal brine, salty water that has been overlooked and pumped back underground since the region's first geothermal plant opened in 1982. The mineral-rich byproduct may now be more valuable than the steam used to generate electricity. California's largest but rapidly shrinking lake is at the forefront of efforts to make the U.S. a major global player in the production of lithium. Despite large deposits of the ultralight metal in the U.S., Nevada has the country's only lithium plant, and U.S. production lags far behind Australia, Chile, Argentina and China. Decades of environmental ruin have left some residents on the Salton Sea's receding shores indifferent or wary. They have been disappointed before, most recently by solar plants that failed to be the economic engine many hoped.