"In the arid American West, expanded mining intensifies battles in vulnerable communities over one of the region’s scarcest resources."
"CALIPATRIA, Calif.—On a border-town road surrounded by alfalfa and grain fields, William Cooper stopped before a dusty, vacant lot. Its owner, he said, is one of many investors drawn to the arid Imperial Valley by a critical mineral propelling the green energy transition.
“They buy it up and leave it, just waiting for the opportunity,” Cooper said of the land investors.
Now, with each gust of desert wind, dust drifts from the lot into the yards of two adjacent schools. Often, the buildings disappear behind a haze and the schoolchildren gasp for air, said Cooper, who moved here from San Diego years ago.
The pollution adds to a litany of burdens plaguing one of the nation’s poorest areas. And it hints at a new pressure reshaping the area’s future: a lithium deposit buried beneath a nearby lake called the Salton Sea—the mother lode for prospectors rushing to extract this key ingredient for the batteries that power electric vehicles.
Companies are racing to draw out lithium from brine bubbling below the Salton Sea. With hefty government support, developers say they will create “the most sustainable lithium and power project in the world,” bringing hundreds of jobs and billions of dollars here."
