Beyond those human health impacts, failure to act will cost local and state taxpayers, as well as local property owners, far more in coming years than any action taken now to avoid a known hazard. Right in the middle of one of the driest deserts in North America lies California’s largest lake, the little-known and oft-maligned Salton Sea. Red flags flutter outside the schools in Salton City when the air quality is dangerous. Currently, 16 state employees are planning projects to tamp down dust or rebuild wetlands, and that will grow to 26 once new positions approved in the latest budget are filled. This comment letter conveys summary comments and suggestions on the draft Water Resilience Portfolio released by California state agencies, drawing on the considerable experience Pacific Institute has around themes of water efficiency, stormwater management, and the Salton Sea. A dock sits where the water from the Salton Sea used to reach. “You’ve got a dying patient,” he said, “and if you don’t act now, he’ll be dead.” All this Salton is making me thirsty The Salton Sea has gotten a bad rap over the years, most of it unwarranted. It formed by accident in 1905, when the Colorado River, swollen from heavy rains, broke through a … The Salton Sea is a large body of water (a saline lake) in southern California, falling within both Riverside County and Imperial County. “The bulk of the funding that has been appropriated to date for the Salton Sea program has not been spent,” he said. And the reason: The Salton Sea doesn't conform to what we think Nature ought to be. Salinity Eutrophication Migrating Birds Air Quality. For a shallow body of water, the Salton Sea holds a large amount of sunk costs. Another 160-acre design will cost $20 million. Fortunately, California has left the door open for a plan that mixes and matches elements from among the eight alternatives to satisfy the environmental and public health mandates as well as provide economic opportunity. Now the Desert Shores, California, area has a stagnant pool of water left at the bottom of the former canals. Years of studies, salaries, and office supplies have been purchased, but few shovels have been put to work. They’ve also nearly finished permitting projects that will cover 30,000 acres, a little more than a third of the area that could eventually be exposed. This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. The U.S. Department of Agriculture kicked in about $8 million for dust-suppression projects, and over the past five years, the Bureau of Reclamation spent about $11 million on water-quality monitoring, wetlands projects along polluted rivers that empty into the lake, and studies on the feasibility of using salty water for dust mitigation. In response to competing demands, the 2003 agreement diverted water from the Imperial Valley. Knowing human nature, if the public reads that they have 35 years to fix the Sea, it is not an imminent problem; it’s one that can be deferred for more pressing current matters. So she began packing fresh clothes for him every day, before COVID-19 halted in-person learning. The Salton Sea’s shoreline is receding, exposing a dusty lakebed known as the “playa.” This sandy substance holds a century’s worth of agricultural runoff, including DDT, ammonia, possibly carcinogenic herbicides like trifluralin and other chemicals. This led to an 18 month period where the water was freely flowing into the Basin. In some places, you can't see the opposite shore because of the earth's curvature. The Salton Sea is California’s largest inland lake, located in Riverside and Imperial Counties. Individual construction sites are expensive, with one roughly 4,000-acre project set to break ground in 2021 costing an estimated $200 million. Years of studies, salaries and office supplies have been purchased, but few shovels have been put to work. Yet California, though largely responsible for fixing it, has barely touched the more than 25 square miles of exposed playa. Red flags flutter outside the schools in Salton City, California, when the air quality is dangerous. In January 2020, California state agencies released a draft document meant to signify a new chapter in California water: the Water Resilience Portfolio. It started forming in 1905 when floods breached a levee on the Colorado River, sending a massive flow roaring downhill into a natural bowl, the Salton Sink, some 230 feet below sea level. Californias largest and saltiest lake, the Salton Sea. Not surprisingly, the scale and cost of the various restoration plans are also huge and complex. Oakland, CA 94612. Ruiz, who was struck by the high rates of respiratory illnesses in the area, compares the lake to a patient “in need of triage.”. Get news from Pacific Institute in your inbox. Resources The plan can be implemented almost immediately with an anticipated long-term solution for the Salton Sea and added benefit to the region in the form of biofuels and feed for cattle. Despite its importance, the Salton Sea is the Rodney Dangerfield of California’s lakes, enduring insult after insult. Meanwhile, the high-water mark has fallen nearly 10 feet, and salinity continues to rise. The Salton Sea, California’s largest lake, is in decline, mainly due to ever decreasing water flows. An October visit found it far from inspiring. Only a few miles east of the family’s neatly kept house, it’s a cobalt-blue patch on Southern California’s Colorado Desert, a roughly 325-square-mile oblong oddity that’s twice as salty as the ocean. A compromise plan could include both a 10,000 acre recreational lake – more than twice the size of the next-largest existing lake in southern California – and sufficient wildlife habitat and air quality protection to address legal requirements. “We don’t have the reserves that we had prior to COVID-19,” Garcia said. Conditions at the Sea will change rapidly in coming years, with potentially catastrophic effects on human health and resultant litigation over who is responsible for the choking clouds of dust blowing off the dried Sea bed. TweetShareShare. They believe algae, products from which are can produce the raw materials for fuel, can be grown on farmland around the Salton Sea. See our privacy policy. By late 2020, the California Natural Resources Agency had completed one dust-suppression project covering a mere 112 acres; the goal for the end of that year was 3,800 acres. “I’m nervous, and I’m scared to see my son like that,” Juarez said. Is it happening? In order to “fix” the sea, government agencies, led by the state, will need to flood, plough or plant tens of thousands of acres to control dust, and rebuild habitat. Located on the San Andreas Fault at the southern end of the U.S. state of California, it lies within the Salton Trough that stretches to the Gulf of California in Mexico. Assembly Member Eduardo Garcia, a Democrat from Coachella, who represents the region surrounding the lake, is optimistic. (Geologic studies show that the Colorado River spilled into the Salton Basin many times over the millennia, creating intermittent lakes. That meant that the lake’s level was guaranteed to drop. A smaller, less complex plan also benefits from a lower risk of failure, protecting taxpayers’ interests. The state and federal governments have spent about $70 million so far, largely on salaries and studies. What can I do to bring the Green New Deal to life? Fortunately, California has left the door open for a plan that mixes and matches elements from among the eight alternatives to satisfy the environmental and public health mandates as well as provide economic opportunity. No single plan does a very good job of satisfying the primary legal mandate to maximize feasible fish and wildlife habitat while eliminating air quality impacts from the restoration project and protecting water quality. This story was originally published by High Country News and the Desert Sun is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Cleanup along the New River, one of three small waterways flowing into the lake, comes with a $28 million bill. This comment letter focuses on how the California Water Resilience Portfolio can incorporate multiple benefits when prioritizing and funding water management strategies throughout the state. The water in California's Salton Sea is vanishing. Unfortunately, this is not a problem that California can simply ignore or dismiss. It’s difficult to find hope in stepwise permit approvals while dust fights through cracks in her home. It’s a sentiment her elected representatives share. Several proposals to ‘fix’ the sea are being considered. In this report, we discuss the changing conditions in and around the Sea, their statewide importance, and the Legislature’s role in overseeing projects to reduce potential negative effects on public health and wildlife. In the context of shrinking wetland habitats, the Salton Sea has become a critical habitat for migratory birds to stop and rest during their annual journeys. Still, the agreement included 15 years of inflows to temporarily control salinity while the state decided on a plan. It has since been fed largely by agricultural runoff from the Imperial and Coachella valleys. This means that unlike most lakes which have an outflow, the Salton Sea only has inflow. Some prioritize economic development; some emphasize habitat creation; one seeks to minimize water requirements. He acknowledged the delays, but called the Red Hill Bay Restoration Project “proof of concept that we can get a shovel-to-ground project started,” adding, “My No. 6 years after Flint water crisis, Michigan’s ex-governor to face charges, In the shadow of Amazon, resistance takes root in San Bernardino. But the Salton Sea doesn't command notice among environmentally minded Californians the way those other bodies of water do. Please enable and refresh the page. http://www.saltonseacoalition.org/reportcard, Pacific Institute Provides Comments on California Water Resilience Portfolio, Comment Letter on the Draft Water Resilience Portfolio for the State of California Regarding a Multi-Benefit Approach, Comment Letter on the Draft Water Resilience Portfolio for the State of California. But more expensive wetland habitat restoration is needed; the lake has long been an important feeding ground along the Pacific Flyway, a migratory bird route on the Western Seaboard. Those days worry Miriam Juarez the most. A compromise plan could include both a 10,000 acre recreational lake – more than twice the size of the next-largest existing lake in southern California – and sufficient wildlife habitat and air quality protection to address legal requirements. A compromise plan that does what the law requires—providing quality fish and wildlife habitat and protecting air and water quality—and creates recreational and economic opportunities may be the last, best chance for the Salton Sea. The region already is home to California’s highest childhood asthma hospitalization rate—increases in airborne dust will only impact more children, and possibly the region’s growing elderly population. 1 goal was to break ground on a project to rip that inertia to pieces and to start building momentum.”, The son of farmworkers, Ruiz grew up just miles from the lake. This week, the California Department of Water Resources released its Draft Environmental Impact Report assessing eight ways to restore the Sea and laying out the consequences if we fail to act. “In the coming months, we’ll be breaking ground in the southern western part of the sea, on the species habitat conservation plan that’s close to three or four-thousand acres of habitat restoration and air quality mitigation. Yet a failure to agree on a compromise plan will keep the Sea mired in inaction, and could squander our best opportunity for saving the Salton Sea. Then, Juarez’s 17-year-old daughter began suffering headaches and respiratory issues. The eight restoration plans under consideration vary in scope, cost and time to complete. A flat patch of dirt covered several hundred dry acres, dotted with a few dead trees. Such a compromise plan would be faster and less costly to complete than the existing recreational plans, providing both economic and ecological benefits sooner – and more feasibly – than with any of the eight existing plans. It’s been almost two decades since an agreement was signed in 2003, committing the Imperial Irrigation District, the Colorado River’s largest user, to conserve water that once flowed from farms into the lake and send it to other districts. So we’re seeing some work,” said Garcia. Within the next 20-30 years, the Sea will be dealt the greatest insult, as the volume of water that sustains this 360-square mile lake will decrease by more than 40 percent, rapidly shrinking the lake and increasing the amount of dust and salt that blows through the Imperial and Coachella valleys. To make educated decisions every time you visit this website uses cookies to provide with! 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