The Story of the Salton Sea . Not surprisingly, the scale and cost of the various restoration plans are also huge and complex. The Salton Sea would be recovered with a permanent supply of water. When the Natural Resources Agency is finally ready for large-scale builds, the budget could get in the way. 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. For a shallow body of water, the Salton Sea holds a large amount of sunk costs. It’s also toxic — a looming environmental and public health disaster. The Salton Sea is a huge body of water, almost 50 percent larger than the San Fernando Valley. And the reason: The Salton Sea doesn't conform to what we think Nature ought to be. Years of studies, salaries, and office supplies have been purchased, but few shovels have been put to work. They’re racing against the clock. For more than 40 years, Californians have been studying and debating ideas about saving the Salton Sea. “Frankly, the permitting is probably more expensive right now than the actual projects,” said Tina Shields, water department manager at the Imperial Irrigation District, which, separate from the state, completed about 2,000 acres of dust suppression on its own land around the lake. 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. We can fix the Salton Sea toxic dust problem with a relatively low-cost, two-phase solution. Biden rejoining the Paris Agreement, explained. They believe algae, products from which are can produce the raw materials for fuel, can be grown on farmland around the Salton Sea. 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. 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. 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. © 1999-2021 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. 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. It has since been fed largely by agricultural runoff from the Imperial and Coachella valleys. Then, Juarez’s 17-year-old daughter began suffering headaches and respiratory issues. 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. The people who live … So we’re seeing some work,” said Garcia. Oakland, CA 94612. To view the Coalition’s assessment of the proposed restoration alternatives, visit http://www.saltonseacoalition.org/reportcard The doctor’s diagnosis was unclear: Perhaps Lihan had allergies. The Salton Sea is a huge body of water, almost 50 percent larger than the San Fernando Valley. 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. The state and federal governments have spent about $70 million so far, largely on salaries and studies. There are multiple interconnected issues adversely affecting the health of the Salton Sea. 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. That meant that the lake’s level was guaranteed to drop. This website uses cookies to provide you with the best browsing experience. For a shallow body of water, the Salton Sea holds a large amount of sunk costs. 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. Always free, always fresh, Ask your climate scientist if Grist is right for you. Unfortunately, this is not a problem that California can simply ignore or dismiss. But she couldn’t leave her job, harvesting vegetables in the fields that form square oases in the Coachella Valley. The Salton Sea’s problems are symptomatic of problems across the Colorado River basin. 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 Hidden, Potentially Deadly, Dangers Of The Salton Sea - Palm Desert, CA - A new UCR report has found the exposed Salton Sea lakebed known as playa can lead to significant health risks. Of course, such compromise will not be perfect. Over tens of thousands of years, as it meandered across the West, the Colorado River occasionally filled the Salton Sea. Juarez, in Salton City, welcomes the efforts but believes that if this problem affected a wealthier, whiter area like Palm Springs, it would’ve been addressed already. Visibility is so poor you can’t see down the block. Cons: Even if private investors are willing to tap into a speculative water venture, the projects, costing up to … 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. ‘No more broken treaties’: Indigenous leaders urge Biden to shut down Dakota Access pipeline. 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. So, in 2007, the state released a sweeping proposal with an $8.9 billion price tag — unfortunately, just as the Great Recession took hold. “The ladies will help you change.”, Get Grist in your inbox But the Salton Sea is just 43 feet at its maximum depth. Even if the farmers, environmentalists, tribes, developers, and local communities agreed tomorrow on a compromise plan, it still will be years before construction begins, and many years after that before the project is completed. (Geologic studies show that the Colorado River spilled into the Salton Basin many times over the millennia, creating intermittent lakes. “We don’t have the reserves that we had prior to COVID-19,” Garcia said. 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. 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. The Salton Sea is a shallow, landlocked body of water that has a high concentration of salts in Riverside and Imperial counties. The people in Salton City and other towns around the retreating lake are still waiting. It’s a sentiment her elected representatives share. Saving the Salton Sea will not be easy, or cheap. 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. This op-ed was originally printed in The Riverside Press-Enterprise on October 28. Subscribe to The Beacon to receive daily updates on solutions driving us forward. So she began packing fresh clothes for him every day, before COVID-19 halted in-person learning. You're more likely to see a "Keep Tahoe Blue" bumpersticker in Palm Springs than you are stickers referring to the Salton Sea. This led to an 18 month period where the water was freely flowing into the Basin. 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. Pacific Institute “Folks got sticker-shocked and did not really pursue a full rehabilitation-restoration approach,” Garcia said. 654 13th Street Get news from Pacific Institute in your inbox. Knowing the lake would recede, the state committed to mitigating the health and environmental impacts. In 2020, the Imperial County Air Pollution Control District slapped the state and feds with notices of violation for failing to complete dust-control projects. 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. Need a daily dose of good climate news? Another 160-acre design will cost $20 million. In 1905, the Salton Sea was formed when a levy on the Colorado River broke causing flooding of the Imperial Valley. TweetShareShare. 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. We no longer have the luxury of delay and inaction. Still, the agreement included 15 years of inflows to temporarily control salinity while the state decided on a plan. The result of an irrigation accident over 100 years ago, the Salton Sink (below sea level) started filling with water, and having no natural outlet, the water’s getting pretty stagnant, toxic, and just plain yucky. 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. She takes her children to the doctor every six months and worries about Lihan. And while California regularly calls on bonds to fund large projects, that money can’t be used for operations and maintenance. 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 Salton Sea is one of the world's largest inland seas, once 45 miles long and 25 miles wide. Visibility is so poor you can’t see down the block. 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. 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. Still, the state must overcome funding issues, disagreements with the feds, permitting bottlenecks, and decades of inertia. 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. “I’m nervous, and I’m scared to see my son like that,” Juarez said. Grist's comments only work with JavaScript. “It’s OK. Just go to the office,” she’d say. Crowfoot acknowledged that the state lacks a mechanism to fund long-term monitoring and upkeep. Years of studies, salaries and office supplies have been purchased, but few shovels have been put to work. The lake’s most recent iteration formed between 1905 and 1907, when an engineering disaster diverted the river into the basin. Green groups promised a racial reckoning in 2020. In January 2020, California state agencies released a draft document meant to signify a new chapter in California water: the Water Resilience Portfolio. But the Salton Sea doesn't command notice among environmentally minded Californians the way those other bodies of water do. 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. Not surprisingly, the scale and cost of the various restoration plans are also huge and complex. This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. The water gushed for 18 months before engineers finally fixed the breach. 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. “I don’t want to stay here and see my kids sick,” she said. 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. I'm sure it is less enjoyable when the temperature are over 100. Red flags flutter outside the schools in Salton City, California, when the air quality is dangerous. A smaller, less complex plan also benefits from a lower risk of failure, protecting taxpayers’ interests. 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 some places, you can't see the opposite shore because of the earth's curvature. 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 has gotten a bad rap over the years, most of it unwarranted. The water in California's Salton Sea is vanishing. Now the lake gets replenished by irrigation runoff and "municipal and industrial drainage," according to the … This story was originally published by High Country News and the Desert Sun is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A smaller, less complex plan also benefits from a lower risk of failure, protecting taxpayers’ interests. It’s difficult to find hope in stepwise permit approvals while dust fights through cracks in her home. The Sea is too important, and ultimately, too costly, not to save. 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 means that unlike most lakes which have an outflow, the Salton Sea only has inflow. We no longer have the luxury of delay and inaction. It formed by accident in 1905, when the Colorado River, swollen from heavy rains, broke through a … 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. 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. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again. Phase 1: Siphon sea water from the Pacific Ocean or … The eight restoration plans under consideration vary in scope, cost and time to complete. 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. The Salton Sea is California’s largest inland lake, located in Riverside and Imperial Counties. Now the Desert Shores, California, area has a stagnant pool of water left at the bottom of the former canals. 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. 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. 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. Some prioritize economic development; some emphasize habitat creation; one seeks to minimize water requirements. That one completed site, the Bruchard Road Dust Suppression Project, looks like someone tried to farm the surface of the moon. 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. “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. 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. Once again a floodgate was omitted. What can I do to bring the Green New Deal to life? California politicians argue the federal government needs to step up because the Bureau of Reclamation owns much of the land underneath the lake. The Salton Sea is a large body of water (a saline lake) in southern California, falling within both Riverside County and Imperial County. Phil Kiddoo, an air pollution expert who worked to contain a similar problem of the dry Owens Lake, told The Verge in an interview that the Salton Sea should be fixed as soon as possible. Saving the Salton Sea will not be easy, or cheap. But the leading contender for a fix may prove to be only a short-term solution. The Imperial Irrigation District wants the state to act, too, citing the 2003 water transfer agreement. It soon became clear that salinity levels would continue increasing. To view the Coalition’s assessment of the proposed restoration alternatives, visit http://www.saltonseacoalition.org/reportcard. By the end of 2017, much of the water that has traditionally been redirected to the Salton Sea will no longer be available under the terms of the agreement, meaning the rate of exposure will triple to about 4,100 acres per year. 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. Dust billows across the desert, blanketing playgrounds and baseball diamonds, the swirling grit canceling recess and forcing students indoors. 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