Salt Water

Tastiota, Mexico A few miles inland from the Sea of Cortez, amid cracked earth and mesquite and sun-bleached cactus, neat rows of emerald plants are sprouting from the desert floor. The crop is salicornia. It is nourished by seawater flowing from a man-made canal. And if you believe the American who is farming it, this incongruous swath of green has the potential to feed the world, fuel our vehicles and slow global warming.

Mists of inhaled saltwater can reduce the pus and infection that fills the airways of cystic fibrosis sufferers, although side effects include a nasty coughing fit and a harsh taste. That's the conclusion of two studies published in the Jan. 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. They found that inhaling a mist with a salt content of 7% or 9% improved lung function and, in some cases, produced less absenteeism from school or work.

Simply inhaling a saltwater spray could help prevent the spread of diseases including flu and tuberculosis. U.S. and German researchers have found that a saline spray, administered using a device called a jet nebulizer, reduced the number of germ-spreading droplets released in coughs by as much as 70% for six hours.

Ventura County, so drained of its groundwater supplies that the state threatened to intervene a decade ago, still needs to do more to halt over-pumping that has caused land to sink and seawater to invade coastal wells, a new federal report concludes. After a 13-year study of the regional groundwater system that stretches from the Santa Clara River near Ventura to the Calleguas Creek headwaters in the east county, the U.S.

In this agricultural valley, lettuce is king, one town holds a broccoli festival, another bills itself as the artichoke capital of the world, and people tend to be slow to speak and economical with their words when they do. Until you ask about water. Then they get downright loquacious. And testy. Real testy. Some say that if there is a seventh level of hell in California's water wars, it lies here in the Salinas Valley.

In this agricultural valley, lettuce is king, one town holds a broccoli festival, another bills itself as the artichoke capital of the world, and people tend to be slow to speak and economical with their words when they do. Until you ask about water. Then they get downright loquacious. And testy. Real testy. Some say that if there is a seventh level of hell in California's water wars, it lies here in the Salinas Valley.