Editor 's note : The staff at CNN.com has recently been intrigued by the journalism of VICE , an independent media company and Web site based in Brooklyn , New York . VBS.TV is broadband television network of VICE . The reports , which are produced solely by VICE , reflect a transparent approach to journalism , where viewers are taken along on every step of the reporting process . We believe this unique reporting approach is worthy of sharing with our CNN.com readers . Brooklyn , New York ( VBS.TV ) -- Set beside the Imperial Valley in southeastern California , the Salton Sea area was supposed to be Hollywood 's answer to the Riviera back in the '50s . But its developers failed to anticipate the raw sewage that would run up the New River from Mexico and make survival impossible for many aquatic species . Rotting fish guts and toxic debris soon littered the shoreline . Construction projects were abandoned and yet another impotent vision of luxury tourism was left flaccid . Thanks again , trash ! See the rest of Toxic : Imperial Valley at VBS.TV . Today the entire Imperial Valley is an apocalyptic dustbowl in the center of the California badlands . We set out to explore this fetid bouillabaisse . What we found were remnants of the Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range , a half-million-acre plot that was once the practice site for various governmental bombardiers . It is the place of business for the residents of a nearby compound known as Slab City -- a mostly insane coterie of fun-hunting drifters , vets , addicts , artists and crazies who subsist on sautéed snake , lukewarm Tecate , money earned from scrapping bombshell fragments and what 's left of their wits . It 's pretty much all that remains of the Wild West .
A vision of luxury in the 1950s , Southern California `` Riviera '' is now a `` fetid bouillabaisse '' Developers did n't foresee pollution that has killed millions of fish in the Salton Sea . " The problem with this statement is it ignores the fact that there are many other factors at play here.