The New River flows north from the city of Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico into the United States through the city of Calexico, California. The river has been referred to as the most severely polluted river of its size within the United States[1]. The creation of the New River, Alamo River, and Salton Sea of today started in the autumn of 1904, when heavy rainfall and snowmelt caused the Colorado River to swell and breach an Imperial Valley dike. The sudden influx of water and the lack of drainage from the basin resulted in the formation of the Salton Sea; the rivers had re-created a great inland sea in the Salton Sink, an area which had frequently been inundated before. Nearly two years passed before workers could control the Colorado River?s flow and stop the flooding, but the river was effectively dammed in the early part of 1907 and returned to its normal course.