Officials Turn to Innovative Method to Address Longstanding Emblem of Water Crisis: ‘Difficult Projects Are Possible’

The Salton Sea has long been a worrying emblem of California’s water crisis. Based in the parched, desert-like lands, the decades-long project to bring new wetlands back to the scorched dirt is finally underway. In the midst of the Salton Sea’s years of evaporation, the waters have grown progressively saltier, killing native fish that acted as a food source for dozens of migrating birds like white pelicans, double-crested cormorants, and eared grebes — all of which have faced significant population declines.