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 . A vision of luxury in the 1950s , the Salton Sea `` Riviera '' is now a `` fetid bouillabaisse '' Developers did n't foresee pollution that has killed a half-million-acre of fish in Southern California . Squatters , toxic debris and `` apocalyptic '' landscape are all that remain the 1950s .
A vision of luxury in the 1950s , the Salton Sea `` Riviera '' is now a `` fetid bouillabaisse '' Developers did n't foresee pollution that has killed a half-million-acre of fish in Southern California . Squatters , toxic debris and `` apocalyptic '' landscape are all that remain the 1950s .