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State Senate kills Salton Sea recovery bill; officials grumble at lack of action on restoration efforts

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 24, 2008 at 8:50 am

From the Imperial Valley Press:

The plagued Salton Sea restoration process may be dying a slow death of its own as state senators killed a bill that would have established an oversight authority for the sea’s revival.

Senate Bill 1256 was in the appropriations committee and may have fallen victim to the state’s continuing budget crisis, Sen. Denise Moreno Ducheny said Friday. “It’s really about the budget more than anything else,” Ducheny, D-San Diego, said. “Unfortunately I think the perception was that ours cost a little too much at this time,” she said.

The bill would have established the Salton Sea Restoration Council, a 14 voting-member committee to oversee the restoration of the sea.

Yes, unfortunately, we aren’t talking the restoration plan - estimated to cost nearly $9 billion dollars, but only establishing the governance structure to administer the restoration plan. However, in spite of the budget deficit, there is a some money already approved to begin restoration work (if my feeble mind serves me correctly, it is $47 million?). However, officials expressed their frustration at the continued lack of progress:

Imperial County Supervisor Larry Grogan said the state has received the benefit of Imperial County water and has not paid its promised price. “Now you’ve got to know how the state feels about the Salton Sea. They’ve got the water now and they’ll let it go to hell,” Grogan, who sits on the Salton Sea Authority, said.

As part of the 2003 Quantification Settlement Agreement, the state agreed to mitigate the impacts of the shrinking sea over $133 million if IID transferred water to the coast. With less agricultural water draining into the sea the shoreline will recede, exposing an environmentally damaging salt playa that could be a detriment to surrounding agriculture and air quality in the Valley, officials have said.

“The Salton Sea cannot wait indefinitely. The clock is ticking,” IID spokesman Kevin Kelley said.

IID Director Stella Mendoza, who also sits on the SSA, said “doing nothing is not an option.”

Read the rest of this article from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.

May 24, 2008 · Filed Under Salton Sea

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