Throwing away millions of taxpayer dollars to re-purpose contaminated waste for creating toxic retention ponds disguised as “habitat,” in the middle of a desert waste sump, is not good logic. At its core, the ill-advised attempt to “restore” the Salton Sea is nothing short of environmental malpractice. It will inevitably fail at a very high cost to both wildlife and taxpayers, succeeding only in perpetuating a hazardous condition. Activists have been peddling the backward notion that Salton Sea is polluted and therefore needs to be “saved,” in large part because birds are threatened. The reality: Birds are in peril because the Salton Sea exists.

The March 26 opinion piece by Tom Buschatzke and 13 other Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan proponents to persuade the public that the DCP is good for the Salton Sea would have been better served – and made more believable – by a show of good faith rather than a show of force. People who know the Salton Sea as an actual place, rather than a place on a map, can tell the difference. That Buschatzke and his fellow river contractors would be defiantly for a plan that turns the Salton Sea into its first casualty is sad but unsurprising. For them, the Salton Sea was the final impediment on the road to the DCP, not the finish line.

Another group of top state officials visited the Salton Sea this week to promise that this time, things will be different and progress will be made to restore the fast-drying water body. The California Water Resources Control Board on Tuesday convened a required annual check-in meeting with a variety of state and local agencies on how and whether efforts to protect public health and restore wildlife habitat are progressing. They met at the lake’s North Shore Yacht Club community center to hear updates and to try to rally residents and experts. Some responded with guarded optimism, seeing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s appointment of top officials who are familiar with the area as a possible sign of long-awaited change.