They tower above the horizon like snow-covered mountains. White crystal peaks catch the sunlight and glisten like glaciers. Sections of this landscape evoke images of an Arctic wasteland, but the crystals are not ice, but salt. Like ice, the crystals start out as a liquid. Salt water.
"It's about as exciting as watching grass grow," said Gene Mullenix, the operations manager at the South Bay Salt Works in Chula Vista. He was referring to his operation of extracting salt from the seawater provided courtesy of the tides in San Diego Bay. The South Bay Salt Works produces on average about 75,000 tons of salt each year.
It takes about a full year for the salt to slowly evaporate in one of the ponds that cover nearly 1,200 acres on the very southern portion of the bay to a state that can be harvested and packaged by the company's 22 employees.
The Salt Works has been on site since about 1873, according to Tracy Strahl, a vice president of the company. The building housing the processing and packing operations is saturated with salt. "It's pickled," Strahl says, grinning.
Outside the plant lie the hundreds of peaceful acres of salt ponds that provide a habitat for a variety of birds, including several on the endangered species list. The birds feed on the brine flies and brine shrimp that live there.