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Opinion: Senator Kelly is Wrong on All Counts Concerning California and the Colorado River

/in , , /by /The Desert Reviewby Betty Miller

Arizona Senator Mark Kelley wrote a letter October 25 to Deb Haaland, U.S. Department of Interior Secretary, asking her to punish the people and communities surrounding the Salton Sea, to punish the migratory birds and fish that depend on the sea for subsistence because he is in a fight for his political seat against a contender that could beat him. The tens of thousands of people living around the Salton Sea experience the highest rates of asthma in the State of California from the drying sea that leaves behind toxic waste which become airborne as winds kick up.

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Study Suggests Source for Salton Sea’s Rapid Decline

/in , /by /Fronteras by Nicholas Gerbia

In the past 25 years, California’s Salton Sea has grown more polluted and hazardous as it has lost one-third of its water. Shrinkage of similar lakes elsewhere mainly stems from warming trends and water diversion.

But a new paper in the journal Water Resources Research suggests that might not be the case with California’s most polluted inland lake.

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Opinion: Restore California’s Salton Sea to its Role in the Ecosystem

/in , , /by /The Mercury Newsby Brent M. Haddad and Robert Glennon

California’s largest inland body of water is in trouble. Inflows to the Salton Sea have decreased, salinity is growing, the ecosystem is collapsing, and neighboring communities are suffering high rates of respiratory illnesses caused, many believe, by contaminants in dust blowing off the exposed former seabed.

It’s not possible to import enough water quickly enough to save the ecosystem and cover the contaminants. The solutions must be more practical: Fixing the salinity will be the key to saving this crucial habitat. A targeted approach can also reduce dust.

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As the Salton Sea Faces Ecological Collapse, Radical Plan to Save it With Ocean Water Dies

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ian James

For as long as the Salton Sea has faced the threat of ecological collapse, some local residents and environmentalists have advocated a radical cure for the deteriorating lake: a large infusion of ocean water.

By moving desalinated seawater across the desert, they say, California could stop its largest lake from shrinking and growing saltier and could restore its once-thriving ecosystem. Without more water, they argue, the lake will continue to decline, and its retreating shorelines will expose growing stretches of dry lake bed that spew hazardous dust and greenhouse gases.

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How California’s Salton Sea Went From Vacation Destination to Toxic Nightmare

/in , /by /Gristby Zoya Teirstein

In the spring of 1905, the Colorado River, bursting with seasonal rain, topped an irrigation canal and flooded the site of a dried lake bed in Southern California. The flooding, which continued for two years before engineers sealed up the busted channel, created an unexpected gem in the middle of the arid California landscape: the Salton Sea. In the decades that followed, vacationers, water skiers, and speed boat enthusiasts flocked to the body of water. The Beach Boys and the Marx Brothers docked their boats at the North Shore Beach and Yacht Club, which opened in 1959. At the time, it seemed like the Salton Sea, and the vibrant communities that had sprung up around it, would be there for centuries to come.

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IID to Pay Off QSA JPA Agreement 13 Years Early

/in , , /by /The Desert Reviewby Betty Miller Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The Imperial Irrigation District board voted 3-0 Tuesday, Sept. 20 to save $24 million dollars by paying off the balance of the 2003 QSA JPA balance.

When the Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA) was signed in 2003, creating the largest rural to urban water transfer, another agreement came from that, the Joint Powers Authority Creation and Funding Agreement. The funds contributed to this second agreement would come from the three water districts involved in the QSA – the IID, the Coachella Valley Water District and the San Diego County Water Authority – along with the State of California.

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Cadiz Water Project Promises Free Water For Salton Sea Area

/in , , /by /NBC Palm Springsby Kamari Esquerra

As California’s water crisis deepens, a new project aims to help conserve resources and ensure disadvantaged communities are not left behind.

Cadiz Inc. is hanging onto its years-long goal of storing water before it evaporates and then selling or giving it away to communities in Southern California.

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Lake That Predated Salton Sea Came and Went as the Colorado River Changed Course

/in , /by /KPBSby Thomas Fudge

Before the Colorado River was tamed by dams and dikes it was a free flowing, flooding river that often changed course, sometimes dramatically. Though it typically flowed south to the Gulf of California, in years of powerful floods it would flow into the Salton Sea Basin, and fill it up to form what we call Lake Cahuilla.

Since about 612 B.C. Lake Cahuilla has filled up seven times, the last time in 1733.

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Salton Sea, Indian Tribe to Get 5,000 Acre-feet of Water Annually

/in , , /by /Patch

 A natural resources investment company announced Thursday it intends to allocate up to 5,000 acre-feet of water annually to the Salton Sea and Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Tribe as part of a public-private partnership intended to help reinvigorate the dying Salton Sea and ensure reliable potable water for communities on tribal land.

Los Angeles-based Cadiz Inc. said that an agreement with the Salton Sea Authority, tribe and Coachella Valley Water District will be part of a wider water distribution enterprise known as the Cadiz Water Conservation & Storage Project, which originally focused on drawing water from the Colorado River and delivering it to Southern California metropolitan areas via a single pipeline.

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As the Salton Sea Dies, $4.12M Contract Approved to Give It Life

/in , /by /Patch

Riverside County supervisors Tuesday approved a $4.12 million contract with an Encinitas-based firm to provide engineering and design services for a project to revitalize a portion of the dying Salton Sea.

“We’ve been working on this project for several years now,” Salton Sea Authority Executive Director Patrick O’Dowd told the Board of Supervisors. “It’s a big day for the community of North Shore and a big day for Riverside County.”

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