is an estimated 18 million metric tons of lithium

suspended in hot geothermal brine.

(brine splashing)

That's enough to power more than 375 million EV batteries.

California's largest lake

has the world's biggest concentration of lithium

in geothermal brine,

which could make the US self-sufficient in the mineral.

It's a revival for the area,

which was a thriving vacation spot until the 1960s.

- [Announcer] The miracle sea in the desert,

the Salton Sea.

- [Narrator] But today, the shrinking lake

is an environmental disaster,

leaving behind toxic dust

in the surrounding desert community, still.

- The Salton Sea region

presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

- [Narrator] But seizing that opportunity isn't easy.

Getting to all that lithium requires new tech, like this,

to stand up against the corrosive conditions.

At stake is hundreds of billions of dollars worth of lithium

and thousands of white-collar jobs.

Here's how companies are racing to develop new ways

to extract lithium from this toxic lake,

and whether that will provide a lifeline or be a threat

to the surrounding Imperial Valley.

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- This resource is really high up there in terms

of both sustainability and scalability as well.

- [Narrator] David Deak leads strategy and development

at EnergySource Minerals,

one of three companies

competing to extract lithium at the Salton Sea.

Inside this non-descript shipping container

is the pilot version of the tech

that could give this area new life.

Part of what makes the Salton Sea unique

is its huge reserve of geothermal brine,

a mix of superheated salty water rich in minerals.

That geothermal brine has been mined for green energy

since the 1980s,

but companies are now eyeing

something even more valuable than steam power, lithium.

EnergySource is developing a less resource-intensive way

to extract it from the brine.

Right now, most of the world's lithium

is extracted from Australia's open pit mines

or South America's evaporation ponds.

Both processes are water-intensive

and can create a lot of contamination and waste.

The new method is called Direct Lithium Extraction or DLE,

and it adds just a few steps

to the geothermal energy generation

already happening at the Salton Sea.

Once that geothermal energy is pulled out,

the brine is deposited back into the reservoir.

- But what we're working on

is a process for which we intercept that return process

where we will then extract lithium

and turn that into product.

- [Narrator] Lithium extraction begins here,

where brine is passed to this machine

full of plastic tubes and columns

carrying what's called an absorbent.

- This is our secret sauce.

The way it works

is that it's a very high surface area material.

Think of it as sort of like a sponge

that's selectively absorbing lithium and nothing else.

- [Narrator] In those same columns,

the company strips the lithium

out of the absorbent with water.

- We are comfortably extracting

over 90% of the lithium that comes out.

- [Narrator] That's double what can be extracted from brine

using more traditional methods like evaporation ponds.

The final product is this clear solution,

purified lithium chloride.

- We can further process this into a solid product

that we can package and send out to battery makers

and EV producers.

- [Narrator] The company plans to start building

the commercial facility in 2024,

with commercial lithium production beginning in 2027.

Once it's built, EnergySource source expects to process

20,000 metric tons of lithium every year,

enough for half a million EV batteries alone.

Ford has already signed on to buy some of that supply.

While EnergySource is gearing up to go commercial,

there's competition on its heels.

Berkshire Hathaway Energy currently operates

10 of the 11 geothermal plants around the Salton Sea.

- They own most of the resource

and they will dominate,

eventually the production of lithium down here.

- [Narrator] Meanwhile, a third player,

Controlled Thermal Resources is working to catch up.

Unlike the other two companies,

CTR doesn't currently own or operate a geothermal plant.

But in January, it began construction

on the first phase of its lithium facilities,

which will produce

25,000 tons of lithium product every year,

that's more than four times the amount

the US currently produces.

All this interest has turned the area into.

- What we refer to as the Saudi Arabia of lithium.

- [Narrator] Right now, the US makes less than 1%

of the world's total lithium supply,

most of which is mined in Nevada.

The Salton Sea's reserves

could transform domestic production.

They are estimated to contain enough lithium

to ultimately produce nearly half of current global output.

- It is used in everything from electric vehicle batteries

to battery storage to cell phones,

and so the opportunity

to potentially recover lithium in such a high volume

is of particular interest.

- [Narrator] It's taken years to get to this point,

and it will still be years

before any lithium production begins at a commercial scale.

- This type of brine that comes from this region,

it is highly mineralized.

Many elements of the periodic table

you will find in this brine and it's very hot,

which means that it could be quite a corrosive brine.

A lot of this tubing and processing is done with plastics

or with special non-corrosive metals.

- [Narrator] The drying Salton Sea itself,

makes extraction even more difficult.

- 10 years ago, the water was up to the edge of the volcano

and it's now receded off into the distance.

- [Narrator] Since 1999, the Salton Sea

has shrunk by more than 30%.

The receding shorelines fueled by drought,

have decimated the region's ecosystems

and exposed more than 30,000 acres of toxic lake bed.

- The current sea, which formed in the early 1900s,

has been maintained largely due to agricultural runoff,

but associated with that runoff are pesticides

and fertilizer components.

It's this material that gets airborne

and generates dust

that creates asthma problems

in children and the elderly.

- [Narrator] That toxic dust is laced with bacteria,

heavy metals, and carcinogens like DDT,

threatening the community and growing workforce

that a multi-billion dollar lithium industry

would bring to the region.

- In order for the lithium economy

to be successful down here,

they need to have a healthy workforce.

You don't wanna bring in a workforce

that's gonna have chronic asthma all the time.

- [Narrator] Some Imperial Valley residents are concerned

lithium extraction could worsen

the region's environmental issues.

Right now, it's unclear

how operations could affect health problems.

That's why some community leaders like Luis Olmedo,

say, "The lithium industry should spearhead efforts

to tackle the toxic dust."

Olmedo is the executive director of Comite Civico del Valle,

a nonprofit that advocates for environmental justice.

- We're predominantly communities of Color,

farm-working communities, low-income communities.

Part of our role is to make sure

that there are fair and equitable negotiations.

- [Narrator] Imperial County has the highest

unemployment rate in California,

and nearly a quarter of children live in poverty.

But jobs in the lithium industry

promise a new way of making ends meet.

Imperial County estimates the industry could bring

as many as 81,000 jobs to the region.

While the lithium industry could bring an economic boost,

water use remains a concern in a region

that receives just three inches of rainfall each year.

- The main use of water in the Imperial Valley

is for agriculture.

If we wanna have a successful lithium industry here,

we've gotta make sure

some of that water gets used for lithium processing.

- [Narrator] In January, Comite Civico del Valle

filed a notice of intent to sue the County

after it approved the plans

for Controlled Thermal Resources' new lithium facilities.

Overuse of Colorado River water and industry pollution,

were two of the key complaints.

In a statement, the County said,

that, "Since the beginning of Lithium Valley,

it has worked to guarantee that residents and communities

directly benefit from the economic

and environmental advancements these developments herald."

As momentum for lithium extraction builds,

community leaders want to see

written agreements from companies

on their community commitments.

- We want them to be able to do business here,

but everyone in this community

that is doing business here

needs to do their own investments

and making sure they mitigate their pollution.

- [Narrator] In a step towards

ensuring the community benefits,

Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation

allowing Imperial County

to tax every metric ton of lithium produced.

The majority of the revenue

is slated for Salton Sea restoration

and community benefit projects.

Amid the promises of a lithium gold rush,

the future of the dwindling Salton Sea remains less certain.

While there are plans in place

to tackle some of the region's toxic dust,

they aren't a long-term fix.

- We have the greatest economic opportunity in our history,

to be able to turn up enough supply of lithium

for this entire country and the world,

but we can only accomplish success

if we have mitigation, if we have community benefits.

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