{"id":8816,"date":"2017-12-01T14:40:41","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T19:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/?p=8816"},"modified":"2019-07-17T16:55:42","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T20:55:42","slug":"salton-sea-california-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/2017\/12\/01\/salton-sea-california-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Teetering on the edge of disaster. What\u2019s next for the Salton Sea?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen it coming for years. The Salton Sea, California\u2019s largest lake, has been in a slow and steady decline for decades. And things are likely to get worse at the end of the year.<\/p>\n

That is, unless the state steps up and honors its commitment to manage and restore the sea.<\/p>\n

A looming deadline<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Salton Sea was created in 1905 when floods breached a levee on the Colorado River, sending a wall of water through Imperial Valley and to the Salton Sink, a natural desert bowl roughly 230 feet below sea level. Water accumulated there and ultimately created the Salton Sea. For decades after that Colorado River water continued to sustain the sea as it passed through Imperial Valley farms as irrigation runoff.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That started to change in 2003 when the Imperial Irrigation District \u2013 which serves Imperial Valley farms \u2013 agreed to transfer increasing amounts of water to San Diego and Los Angeles. The agreement, referred to as the Quantification Settlement Agreement, is the largest agriculture-to-urban water transfer in U.S. history, with up to 303,000 acre-feet transferred annually. That\u2019s enough water to supply over 600,000 households every year.<\/p>\n

[Tweet “Teetering on the edge of disaster, what\u2019s next for the Salton Sea? @PabloGarza9 explains.https:\/\/edf.org\/XQS”]<\/p>\n

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The Salton Sea, California’s largest lake, is located in the southeastern Coachella Valley and northwestern Imperial Valley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the time the water deal was struck, Imperial Irrigation District and state officials knew the diversion would reduce flows to the Salton Sea, eventually causing it to shrink. The resulting impacts would be an environmental, economic and public health disaster. Critical fish and migratory bird habitat would be decimated, and the exposed lake bed would send thousands of tons of toxic dust into the air, exacerbating the region\u2019s already impaired air quality and adversely impacting communities.<\/p>\n

With that catastrophe in mind, Imperial Irrigation District agreed to replenish the Salton Sea by sending additional water directly to it. This \u201cmitigation water\u201d would be provided for the next 15 years until the end of 2017, allowing state officials more than enough time to develop, fund and start implementing a restoration plan for the lake.<\/p>\n

But progress has been slow, and with the end of 2017 just weeks away, communities in the Imperial Valley are once again thinking about the disastrous outcomes of a shrinking Salton Sea.<\/p>\n

A reason for hope<\/strong><\/p>\n

Luckily, in recent months, state officials, along with local residents and environmental groups, including Environmental Defense Fund, have been working in earnest on solutions.<\/p>\n

In November, the State Water Resource Control Board approved a 10-year plan for the lake that Governor Jerry Brown\u2019s administration released in March. The $383 million plan commits the state to build thousands of acres of ponds and wetlands to serve as dust control and to create habitat for fish and birds.<\/p>\n

The Salton Sea has been chronically underfunded, but state legislators took another positive step in September with the passage of SB 5, a $4 billion parks and water bond<\/a> which the state legislature approved and Governor Brown signed, qualifying it for the ballot in 2018.<\/p>\n

If approved by voters, SB 5 will allocate $200 million to the Salton Sea and implementing the State\u2019s 10-year plan.<\/p>\n

So the pieces are starting to fall into place. For the first time in 15 years, we have some momentum. But much more progress is still needed. 2018 is right around the corner. Let\u2019s get some projects on the ground.<\/p>\n

Related:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

California’s upcoming water bond measure will do more than meets the eye >><\/a><\/p>\n

What it\u2019s going to take to fund California\u2019s water infrastructure >><\/a><\/p>\n

What the Oroville Dam crisis tells us about natural infrastructure >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve seen it coming for years. The Salton Sea, California\u2019s largest lake, has been in a slow and steady decline for decades. And things are likely to get worse at the end of the year. That is, unless the state steps up and honors its commitment to manage and restore the sea. A looming deadline …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109909,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71922],"tags":[63,102768,102766,102753,102754,102767,84809],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-8816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-water","tag-colorado-river","tag-imperial-irrigation-district","tag-imperial-valley","tag-salton-sea","tag-sb-5","tag-southern-california","tag-water-use"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/109909"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8816"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}