Abandoned Motel at Mortmar. In the 1970s most of the buildings constructed along the shoreline had to be abandoned due to rising sea elevation. Most of the original tourist related structures fell during the 1980s and 1990s because of mandated water transfers to metropolitan areas and the California drought the water inflow was limited and the evaporation of the lake water was not compensated by enough water inflow resulting in increasing salinity and pollution of the lake and exposing of large swaths of lake bed. Mortar, Salton Sea, Imperial County, California, USA. .© March 4 2008 Marco van Middelkoop/Aerophoto-Schiphol.