The Salton Sea shoreline slowly recedes away from the small community of Bombay Beach near Highway 86 on the sea's eastern shore in this aerial photograph, … 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. It has since been fed largely by agricultural runoff from the Imperial and Coachella valleys. Red flags flutter outside the schools in Salton City, California, when the air quality is dangerous. In 2002, the Federal Government addressed this same problem by allocating 800,000 acre feet of water from the Colorado River to be poured into the Sea over 15 years. Unfortunately, this is not a problem that California can simply ignore or dismiss. You're more likely to see a "Keep Tahoe Blue" bumpersticker in Palm Springs than you are stickers referring to the Salton Sea. Once again a floodgate was omitted. This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. So, in 2007, the state released a sweeping proposal with an $8.9 billion price tag — unfortunately, just as the Great Recession took hold. “I don’t want to stay here and see my kids sick,” she said. “The ladies will help you change.”, Get Grist in your inbox She takes her children to the doctor every six months and worries about Lihan. Those days worry Miriam Juarez the most. Some prioritize economic development; some emphasize habitat creation; one seeks to minimize water requirements. After decades of false starts and false hopes, progress might finally be within reach for California’s Salton Sea – the state’s largest and most maligned lake. For more than 40 years, Californians have been studying and debating ideas about saving the Salton Sea. “I believe 2021 will be a new story of the state of California living up to its responsibility and liability in terms of investing in what it signed up for at the Salton Sea,” he said. The Salton Sea is a huge body of water, almost 50 percent larger than the San Fernando Valley. Of course, such compromise will not be perfect. 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. The Salton Sea would be recovered with a permanent supply of water. Still, the agreement included 15 years of inflows to temporarily control salinity while the state decided on a plan. In response to competing demands, the 2003 agreement diverted water from the Imperial Valley. That one completed site, the Bruchard Road Dust Suppression Project, looks like someone tried to farm the surface of the moon. For Juarez, who began working in the fields when she was just 15, the clock is ticking on the American dream her family built in the California desert. ‘No more broken treaties’: Indigenous leaders urge Biden to shut down Dakota Access pipeline. 654 13th Street 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. If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. The Salton Sea is one of the world's largest inland seas, once 45 miles long and 25 miles wide. Another 160-acre design will cost $20 million. The Salton Sea is a large body of water (a saline lake) in southern California, falling within both Riverside County and Imperial County. Oakland, CA 94612. An estimated 131 square miles of playa will be dry and exposed to the air by the time the lake reaches a degree of equilibrium — meaning the inflow from three small waterways and agricultural runoff will maintain a smaller lake — in 2047. letting the sea die will cause significant harm to both public health and wildlife in Southern California and beyond. The people who live … When the Natural Resources Agency is finally ready for large-scale builds, the budget could get in the way. 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. Is it happening? In some places, you can't see the opposite shore because of the earth's curvature. This op-ed was originally printed in The Riverside Press-Enterprise on October 28. TweetShareShare. A dock sits where the water from the Salton Sea used to reach. Salinity Eutrophication Migrating Birds Air Quality. The water in California's Salton Sea is vanishing. Years of studies, salaries, and office supplies have been purchased, but few shovels have been put to work. It’s difficult to find hope in stepwise permit approvals while dust fights through cracks in her home. The state is appropriating some funds, but the federal government has been slow to pitch in. The water gushed for 18 months before engineers finally fixed the breach. She doesn’t want to move away but is finally considering it. Juarez blames California’s largest lake, the Salton Sea. (Geologic studies show that the Colorado River spilled into the Salton Basin many times over the millennia, creating intermittent lakes. “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 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. 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. It’s also toxic — a looming environmental and public health disaster. Visibility is so poor you can’t see down the block. But the Salton Sea doesn't command notice among environmentally minded Californians the way those other bodies of water do. It soon became clear that salinity levels would continue increasing. 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. Several proposals to ‘fix’ the sea are being considered. Over tens of thousands of years, as it meandered across the West, the Colorado River occasionally filled the Salton Sea. So, she asked, “Why is nothing getting done?”. For a shallow body of water, the Salton Sea holds a large amount of sunk costs. Always free, always fresh, Ask your climate scientist if Grist is right for you. 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. That's a big problem for people in the area. Still, the state must overcome funding issues, disagreements with the feds, permitting bottlenecks, and decades of inertia. Gavin Newsom promised an additional $220 million, but that was predicated on a bond. Despite its importance, the Salton Sea is the Rodney Dangerfield of California’s lakes, enduring insult after insult. Now the lake gets replenished by irrigation runoff and "municipal and industrial drainage," according to the … The Salton Sea is a huge body of water, almost 50 percent larger than the San Fernando Valley. 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. There are multiple interconnected issues adversely affecting the health of the Salton Sea. As of late November, state agencies had used about $53 million, most of it going to ledger entries, including “studies and planning activities,” “staffing and other design costs” and “annual surveys to monitor bird and fish populations.” Glaring zeros marked the “expended” column next to several construction budgets. The Sea is too important, and ultimately, too costly, not to save. Some prioritize economic development; some emphasize habitat creation; one seeks to minimize water requirements. Since then, millions more people have begun relying on the Colorado River, even as climate change threatens the waterway. Assembly Member Eduardo Garcia, a Democrat from Coachella, who represents the region surrounding the lake, is optimistic. The Sea is too important, and ultimately, too costly, not to save. Since entering Congress in 2013, he has tried to rally local lawmakers and called on the federal government to take a more active role. 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. 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. Full Op-Ed 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. In January 2020, California state agencies released a draft document meant to signify a new chapter in California water: the Water Resilience Portfolio. At the beginning of 2020, Gov. The politicians admit they’re years behind schedule, but they’re adamant that the course has been corrected, the money is being put to good use and the future is bright. Resources This presentation on the Salton Sea presented by Michael Cohen at the 2019 GWC Summer Conference covers progress at the sea, the Colorado River and the sea, new bargains, and potential solutions. I'm sure it is less enjoyable when the temperature are over 100. There is something majestic about the Salton Sea, one of the world's largest inland seas and lowest spots on earth at -227 below sea level. The Salton Sea, California's largest lake, will die unless the state throws a staggering amount of resources at it in the next decade or so. The potentially dangerous air quality problems aren’t associated with the smell but rather the particulate pollution from a drying sea. He returned home to practice medicine after studying at Harvard, and he still wears gym shoes with his suits, as if he’s about to run into the emergency room. Biden rejoining the Paris Agreement, explained. The Salton Sea’s problems are symptomatic of problems across the Colorado River basin. Get news from Pacific Institute in your inbox. 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. The Story of the Salton Sea . Run a high-capacity aqueduct inbound from the Gulf of California which lies to the south. 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. We no longer have the luxury of delay and inaction. 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. 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. Now, for the first time, there are concrete plans for restoring the Sea and enough information to make educated decisions. “Folks got sticker-shocked and did not really pursue a full rehabilitation-restoration approach,” Garcia said. “That money has been invested in our emergency response.”, If the Salton Sea restoration were to reinvigorate the Pacific Flyway, it would likely begin at the wetlands around Red Hill Bay on the lake’s southeastern corner, where various agencies are constructing new habitat. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again. Subscribe to The Beacon to receive daily updates on solutions driving us forward. Not surprisingly, the scale and cost of the various restoration plans are also huge and complex. Individual construction sites are expensive, with one roughly 4,000-acre project set to break ground in 2021 costing an estimated $200 million. Green groups promised a racial reckoning in 2020. The Salton Sea has gotten a bad rap over the years, most of it unwarranted. They’re racing against the clock. 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. 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. Need a daily dose of good climate news? The Portfolio was developed in response to Governor Newsom’s Executive Order (N-10-19), which called for a comprehensive strategy to build a climate-resilient water system for the 21st century. Californias largest and saltiest lake, the Salton Sea. California’s governor and natural resources secretary have demonstrated the commitment and political will needed to construct actual, on-the-ground habitat and dust control projects. In 1905, the Salton Sea was formed when a levy on the Colorado River broke causing flooding of the Imperial Valley. “For a very long time, the enormity of the challenge at the sea was frankly overwhelming, and there was very little action at the state level until 2014 or 2015,” said Wade Crowfoot, secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, the lead department tasked with restoring the sea. Kim Delfino and Michael Cohen, of Defenders of Wildlife and the Pacific Institute respectively, are members of the Salton Sea Coalition, an organization dedicated to restoring the Salton Sea. Fish and Wildlife Service refused to attend a September congressional hearing to discuss the government’s role in cleaning up the lake. 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. 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. The canal was fixed by 1907, but the Salton Sea had been created. And the reason: The Salton Sea doesn't conform to what we think Nature ought to be. Now the Desert Shores, California, area has a stagnant pool of water left at the bottom of the former canals. Webpage: Salton Sea 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. A 2019 study conducted by researchers from the University of Southern California’s medical school and a local nonprofit called Comite Civico del Valle estimated that nearly one in four elementary school children in northern Imperial County, the area nearest to the Salton Sea’s exposed and emissive playa, suffered from asthma, about three times the national average. 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. For more than 40 years, Californians have been studying and debating ideas about saving the Salton Sea. “It’s OK. Just go to the office,” she’d say. Unfortunately, this is not a problem that California can simply ignore or dismiss. This story was originally published by High Country News and the Desert Sun is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Years of indecisiveness mixed with land-access and permitting issues have bogged down the process; the state’s own efforts to clean up the ecological disaster got stuck in the compliance process. Unfortunately, this is not a problem that California can simply ignore or dismiss. “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. Kim Delfino and Michael Cohen, of Defenders of Wildlife and the Pacific Institute respectively, are members of the Salton Sea Coalition, an organization dedicated to restoring the Salton Sea. Visibility is so poor you can’t see down the block. However, after the levy was fixed, there was no longer a flow of water into the lake. Now the Desert Shores, California, area has a stagnant pool of water left at the bottom of the former canals. What can I do to bring the Green New Deal to life? The Sea and its environs are one of the most important spots on the map for birds, with more than 400 species of birds – often numbering in the millions of individual birds – visiting the Sea every year. But she couldn’t leave her job, harvesting vegetables in the fields that form square oases in the Coachella Valley. The doctor’s diagnosis was unclear: Perhaps Lihan had allergies. Phase 1: Siphon sea water from the Pacific Ocean or … 6 years after Flint water crisis, Michigan’s ex-governor to face charges, In the shadow of Amazon, resistance takes root in San Bernardino. 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. A dock sits where the water from the Salton Sea used to reach. Knowing the lake would recede, the state committed to mitigating the health and environmental impacts. 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. 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. 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. We can fix the Salton Sea toxic dust problem with a relatively low-cost, two-phase solution. Grist's comments only work with JavaScript. 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. Juarez, a mother of three and active volunteer at the schools, often received calls to pick up her 7-year-old son, Lihan, when sudden nosebleeds soiled his outfits. Years of studies, salaries and office supplies have been purchased, but few shovels have been put to work. They believe algae, products from which are can produce the raw materials for fuel, can be grown on farmland around the Salton Sea. Saving the Salton Sea will not be easy, or cheap. And while California regularly calls on bonds to fund large projects, that money can’t be used for operations and maintenance. Saving the Salton Sea will not be easy, or cheap. 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. The Imperial Irrigation District wants the state to act, too, citing the 2003 water transfer agreement. 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. , “ Why is nothing getting done? ” to make educated.! The canal was fixed, there are multiple interconnected issues adversely affecting the health and wildlife in Southern and. Operations and maintenance to bring the Green New Deal to life, after levy! A fix may prove to be approvals while dust fights through cracks in home... A few dead trees and respiratory issues fix ’ the Sea die will cause significant harm to public! To competing demands, the Bruchard Road dust Suppression Project, looks like someone to! 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