The Salton Sea is the state’s largest lake, a critical Pacific Flyway link for waterfowl and an economic engine for an often-overlooked corner of California.
The Salton Sea has been slowly receding for years and will accelerate drastically in 2017 when the Imperial Irrigation District (IID) must stop return flows. This will result in a rapid increase in the exposed “playa” (areas of dust) that can in turn be whipped up by wind and wreak public health and economic havoc.
The State Water Resources Control Board, to the credit of members and staff, hosted a recent day-long workshop requested by the Imperial Irrigation District (“IID”) on the imminent and avoidable Salton Sea disaster and may conduct a proceeding at the Sea in the spring. Imperial County Chief Executive Ralph Cordova explained to the board his county has 555,000 acres of the nation’s most fertile farmland which generates 2.5 million jobs statewide and has a $2 billion economic impact in a county that is 84% Latino. The county unfortunately is also home to both the highest jobless rate, 23%, and the highest child poverty rate, 33%. County Public Health Officer Stephen Munday, MD — an environmental health and toxicology expert — said “the health of the Salton Sea correlates directly with the health of the people, especially children and the elderly.” He estimates the 7,184 exposed playa acres in 2017 will escalate to 44,292 in 2027.
The Sea has been studied off and on since the 1930s. The Natural Resources Agency in 2007 assembled a wildly expensive plan for a $9 billion fix. As Deputy Secretary Kaeli’i Bright testified, no one disputes that the plan is fundamentally flawed with “no fiscal or hydrological realities.” Prop. 1, the new water bond, provides funds to begin a solution, he said, and must be a catalyst to get the locals organized to define standards of a solution.
Working together, the county and IID have a solution — pay for a significant share of the Salton Sea restoration by developing a host of renewable power sources, including geothermal. IID points to a geothermal field capable of producing 1,700 megawatts with the added value of lithium extraction as a lucrative and national security enhancing by-product.
Matt Dessert, IID board member, paints this eloquent picture of the consequences:
“The sea is already receding, fine particulate is already being uncovered at Red Hill Marina, some of it getting airborne in an isolated way. But that will not always be so, and as transfer water ends its winding route to the replenishing of the sea, the sea will recede at a faster pace, dust storms will be likely in all areas, and the health of people in the Imperial and Coachella valleys will very much be made worse because of it.”
We need to act, the board was told, now. Time and water are running out. California — in that remote corner — faces a catastrophe. How big? Please take a few minutes to watch these videos of drained Owens Lake dust storms — remember the Salton Sea is roughly 3 times as large. As Ryan Kelley, chairman of the Imperial County Board of Supervisors asked the workshop, “Where is the environmental justice in that?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCqbj04myy0