Imperial Valley (California)

Imperial Valley (California)

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Imperial Valley (California)

The Imperial Valley below the Salton Sea, as seen from the Space shuttle. North is to the upper right. The US-Mexican border is a diagonal in the lower left of the image.

The Imperial Valley is a region of southeastern California (USA) located, in part, between the Colorado River and the Salton Sea, which is California's largest saltwater lake. Major population centers are Brawley, Calexico and El Centro which is the county seat. Locally, the terms "Imperial Valley" and "Imperial County" are used synonymously.

Other regions in the vicinity of the Imperial Valley include the Coachella Valley and the Mexicali Valley (Baja California, Mexico), both of which lie within the Salton Sea watershed. In Mexico, this area of the Baja California peninsula is referred to as the Valle de Mexicali. Over the mountains to the west lies San Diego, California, and to the east beyond the Colorado River is southwestern Arizona.

Although this region is a desert, with high temperatures and low average rainfall of three inches (seventy-five mm) per year, the economy is heavily based on agriculture due to the availability of irrigation water, which is supplied wholly from the Colorado River via the All-American Canal.

Spanish explorer Melchior Díaz was one of the first Europeans to visit the area in 1540, and probably sent at least scouting parties into the valley proper. Three centuries later, the northern half of the valley was annexed by the U.S., while the southern half remained under Mexican rule. Small scale settlement in natural acquifer areas occurred in the early 1800s (the present-day site of Mexicali), but most permanent settlement (Anglo Americans in the U.S. side, Mexicans in the other side) was after 1900.

A vast system of canals, check dams, and pipelines carry the water all over the valley, a system which forms the Imperial Irrigation District, or IID. The water distribution system includes over of canal and with of pipeline. The number of canal and pipeline branches number roughly over a hundred.

Imported water and a long growing season allow two crop cycles each year, and the Imperial Valley is a major source of winter fruits and vegetables, cotton, and grain for U.S. and international markets. Alfalfa is another major crop produced in the Imperial Valley. The agricultural lands are served by a constructed agricultural drain system, which conveys surface runoff and subsurface drainage from fields to the Salton Sea, which is a designated repository for agricultural runoff.

A secondary industry of the Imperial Valley region is tourism. Many visitors come to the area to visit the Salton Sea (California's largest inland lake, which serves as a dumpout point for the overflow and drainage from the IID canal system and ditch drainage) and the Algodones Dunes. The New River flows from the border city of Mexicali northward to the Salton Sea.

Most of the Imperial Valley is in fact below sea level, including all but one of its major population centers. Due to this fact, a lot of dust and other airborne pollutants hover in the air and do not move out of the valley. The dust, pesticides, and "smog" from vehicles and burning fields causes an increased risk of asthma in the local residents. Commonly, winds blow from the western mountains; especially during the winter.

The Imperial and Mexicali Valleys share a common international bond of both American and Hispanic cultures. On the U.S. side, the majority of residents are of Mexican American or Latino heritage, while the Mexican side was greatly influenced by American culture by the U.S. for many decades. And the entire valley has multi-racial representation of Africans, Europeans, east and south Asians, and Native Americans.

Imperial Valley is crossed by Interstate 8, and State Routes 7, 78, 86, 98, 111 and 115, and Mexican federal highways 2 and 5 with access to border entry ports to the U.S. side.

Due to its desert environment and proximity to Los Angeles, California, movies are sometimes filmed in the sand dunes outside the agricultural portions of the Imperial Valley. These have included Return of the Jedi, Stargate, The Scorpion King, and Into the Wild. Additionally, portions of the 2005 film Jarhead were filmed here because of its similarity to the desert terrain of Iraq. Mountains that were visible in the background during filming were digitally removed during postproduction.http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0418763/