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