Drainage patterns on the Salton Sea east shore. The Salton Sea is a endorheic basin located directly on the San Andreas Fault, it is fed by the New River, Whitewater River, Alamo River and agricultural runoff from the Imperial Valley. It used to be a resort area in the 1950s but many of the settlements have been abandoned because of the the increasing salinity and pollution of the lake. Due to mandated water transfers to metropolitan areas along the coast 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..Desert Shores, Salton Sea, Imperial County, California, USA. .© March 4 2008 Marco van Middelkoop/Aerophoto-Schiphol.