Even as a boy, I knew there was something unusual, even other-worldly, about living in the Imperial Valley.
We seemed so isolated, more connected to Mexico than California. In fact the valley’s largest city was Mexicali, just across the border, and we’d often walk across for cheap restaurant food. It was an hours-long, 100-mile automobile drive through treeless, boulder-strewn mountains to San Diego, the nearest California city of any size.
Imperial Irrigation District made the first notable follow-up to its petition to hit the brakes on the Lower Basin Drought Contingency Plan for the Colorado River with an opening brief filed Wednesday.
IID originally filed the petition in Superior Court of Los Angeles County on April 18, 2019. The petition calls on the court to suspend approvals and actions related to the Lower Basin Drought Contingency Plan until such time an appropriate analysis of Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s commitment to the plan has been completed in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act.
The Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors approved their annual funding contribution to the Colorado River Board at their July 7 meeting.
The board met in their regular session to approve a $661,250 contribution to the Colorado River Board of California’s 2020-2021 budget to help achieve the mission to protect the Colorado River.
The Imperial Irrigation’s financial picture after the first six months was not a rosy one, and the district expects it to get worse as COVID-19 numbers continue to increase in the county.
When IID Assistant General Manager Sergio Quiroz presented the IID Board of Directors Tuesday with the district’s financial update, he pointed out the figures include January through March, before COVID-19 had fully impacted the district.
The Engagement Committee of the Salton Sea Management Plan (SSMP) met June 17 on Zoom, though participating community members were neither seen or heard; they could only write comments and questions.
About 90% of the meeting consisted of management reporting on small plans to control dust and build habitat that still require federal permits, which will delay construction for another year. Also, the SSMP has approved a $19 million dollar pilot project for the North Lake.
Despite pandemic related fiscal challenges, work on the Salton sea still remains a priority. Especially for Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, from the 56th district, who helped get funds of over 47-million dollars for new river and Salton sea mitigation projects.
The Imperial Irrigation District is celebrating California’s new state budget. In spite of coronavirus-caused spending cuts, it will get the funding it needs for two important environmental projects.
The Imperial County Air Pollution Control District on Tuesday hit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Imperial Irrigation District with notices of violation for ongoing pollution at a long-stalled Salton Sea restoration project.
The violations allege that the federal agency and the water district have only made sporadic attempts since 2016 to complete work at the several-hundred-acre Red Hill Bay site, “causing numerous instances of elevated levels of airborne dust.”
At a May meeting of the board of directors of the Brownsville, Texas, Board of Public Works, the utility’s director of finance Mike Perez made an announcement that was perhaps surprising in the middle of a pandemic.
“April was a good month,” Perez said. Revenue was up, in part due to customers staying home and using more electricity. Accounts receivable were “in line” with the same period a year ago, indicating that customers were mostly able to pay their bills. “We are not seeing anything alarming so far,” Perez said.
Although COVID-19 cases continue to skyrocket locally, both Imperial County and the Imperial Irrigation District have started transitioning from telecommuting to having their employees return to their usual work sites.
