After decades of trial and error, a new plan is taking shape around the Salton Sea, California’s largest — and endlessly troubled — lake. The accidental inland sea, some 35 miles long, sprung to life 120 years ago when the Colorado River breached an irrigation canal east of Palm Springs. The sudden, shimmering water briefly created a tourist boom that lasted into the 1960s, though for much of the half-century, the lake could more aptly be described as an environmental disaster zone. Now a new wave of conservation efforts, sparked by millions of dollars in recent federal funding, has washed ashore at the ultra-briny sea, and there’s cautious hope from some that incoming industry will bring an economic boom. That is, if it doesn’t all fall apart first.

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• Western Water Rewind: Long Troubled Salton Sea May Finally Be Getting What it Most Needs: Action — And Money