In November 2015, there was a rare celebration at the Salton Sea. More than 100 people gathered on a dry stretch of dirt at Red Hill Bay, where the lake’s shoreline was receding quickly. They were there to break ground on the Salton Sea’s first major restoration project, which would create hundreds of acres of habitat for migratory birds and help keep lung-damaging dust out of the air. Several public officials  — including state lawmakers Eduardo Garcia and Ben Hueso — grabbed shovels and posed for a photo scooping dirt out of the ground, with a bulldozer in the background.