The Salton Sea: Canals are a solution

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 22, 2008 at 5:14 pm

From MyDesert.com:

Most people with an interest in the Salton Sea and who remember what it was like in the 1950s and ’60s would like to see it truly restored to what it used to be, a major fishing and water recreational area attracting more visitors than Yosemite.

An engineering firm, CRM Inc., did a study and put forth a proposal in 2005 to truly restore the sea to its former beauty with clean water and a stable shoreline.

This would be accomplished by a canal from the Gulf of Mexico to bring clean ocean water to the sea and another canal to remove more salty water to the gulf. The CRM proposal is explained in detail in a posting on mydesert.com. I urge interested readers to read the proposal and, if you find it plausible and preferable to other proposals, contact your legislators to urge them to give it consideration.

A clean Salton Sea with a stable shoreline would be a tremendous asset that would benefit residents and property owners in the area as well as the fish and birds.

I tried to search MyDesert.com to read the posting he mentions above, but couldn’t find it. However, plenty of Salton Sea canals & pipelines in the Aquafornia Salton Sea archives (click here). And of course, let’s not forget the Salton Sea Channel plan.

Read the full text of this article from MyDesert.com, click here.

June 22, 2008 · Filed Under Salton Sea

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Five questions for Sen. Denise Moreno Ducheny about what’s next for the Salton Sea

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 20, 2008 at 6:21 am

From MyDesert.com:

A conversation with Sen. Denise Moreno Ducheny about what’s next for the Salton Sea.

Senate Bill 1256, which would would have created an oversight committee, is dead, and another, SB 187, to allocate funding to restore the sea, is stalled. What should happen now?

The funding is in the budget. Activities on restoration will continue. It would be beneficial to get SB 187 passed out of the Legislature this year so that more direction is provided with a framework for the beginning activities for restoration. It provides an important framework for early-start activities and provides legislative direction to the administration to start those no regrets necessary early implementation projects. Finally, it provides a stronger signal to the federal government and local governments as well that the state is moving forward on the restoration project.

Read more from MyDesert.com by clicking here.

June 20, 2008 · Filed Under Salton Sea

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Salton Sea’s salvation rests on stalled funding appropriation

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 10, 2008 at 5:42 am

From MyDesert.com, this editorial:

Unfortunately, the state Legislature has not made the Salton Sea a priority. It must be a priority because it’s shrinking and in danger of becoming a dust bowl that will release harmful toxins into the air. The bill, along with scores of other measures, did not pass out of the Senate Appropriations Committee late last month because the bills were projected to add new costs at a time when the state is experiencing a budget crisis.

While we agree that the state should be prudent, especially with ongoing operation expenses, voters have set aside money by voting for this funding measure. The voters already approved funds in the budget, federal money to match it is waiting in the wings, and we shouldn’t allow the Legislature to stifle voters’ wishes. “It is irresponsible not to allocate money the voters approved,” said Rick Daniels, former executive director of the Salton Sea Authority.

Voters approved $46 million in 2006 to restore the Salton Sea, California’s largest lake, because the water salinity is increasing and the sea is shrinking. It will recede considerably by 2018, when water transfers will halt agricultural runoff for the most part.

But two years have passed and nothing is being done. Of that money, about $10.3 million is in the proposed 2008-09 budget, earmarked for early restoration work. That money can be spent without the bill and it should, but what about the other $38 million? The state legislature is stalled in making the needed appropriations and a federal match of $30 million that was hard fought for by Sen. Barbara Boxer, who is a Rancho Mirage resident, and Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs, remains unused.

Part of the problem is that it will take millions to restore the Salton Sea. Experts also point to the fact that the lake is far away from more populated areas that seem to get more immediate attention. But this area is important to the state. Negative impact from the dying Salton Sea will not only harm wildlife and our health, but it will hurt the statewide economy when tourists stop visiting.

SB 1256, which would have created a new agency that included local control to oversee the restoration, never even came up for a vote. It was just allowed to die because the state is about $17 billion in the red.

We understand that every dollar not spent goes to help show a balanced budget, but the voters approved a funding measure and the sea is dying now. Something has to be done soon, or we face devastation from the sea’s environmental and economic impacts.

Read the full text of this editorial from MyDesert.com by clicking here.

June 10, 2008 · Filed Under Salton Sea

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Salton Sea: We will pay, one way or another, says editorial

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 5, 2008 at 7:39 am

From the Imperial Valley Press Online. this editorial:

The time for the state of California to act on the Salton Sea was yesterday … or thousands of yesterdays ago. That it may be thousands of tomorrows before the state does anything about the Salton Sea’s environmental problems is more than discouraging for Imperial County residents. It is distressing … and dangerous.

With water levels dropping and saline and pollutants ever increasing in the Salton Sea, toxic dust storms from the seashore soon may be less threat and more reality. Something needs to be done about this mess by some bigger, richer and more powerful entity than those in Riverside and Imperial counties, but it is appearing the state’s financial problems may keep it from doing much in the foreseeable future.

Budget problems are at the forefront of legislator’s minds, and so far, there has been difficulty getting legislation passed to begin restoration efforts. But the editorial warns that inaction could be more costly than restoration:

… we are convinced the state, even in these cash-strapped times, should make Salton Sea solutions a priority. Researchers are not certain what the effects will be on humans and crops from toxic dust storms, but they are not exactly optimistic.

We can’t wait for the state’s budget woes to be fixed. This problem is simply too severe to leave on the back burner in Sacramento. It requires immediate legislative action before the lawyers line up to take costly legal action.

We believe it is much smarter to pay a lot now than to pay a lot more later.

Read the full text of this editorial from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.

June 5, 2008 · Filed Under Salton Sea

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Salton Sea air still up in air; there is concern for air quality in the region as the shoreline recedes

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 28, 2008 at 6:33 am

From the Imperial Valley Press:

The future restoration of the Salton Sea is a $9 billion question mark in the hands of the state. Last week a bill that would have established the governance for the Salton Sea Restoration Council died on the state Senate floor for lack of a vote.

The Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors heard from an environmental attorney Tuesday on the implications of air-quality issues along the receding shoreline.

Ellen Spellman, whose firm is contracted by the district to oversee the 2003 Quantification Settlement Agreement legalities, spoke about liability, emissions and restoration. Spellman said environmental studies have shown the exposure of the shoreline is inevitable but predicting what kind of emissions will be mixed into the air is unknown. “This is an area of great uncertainty,” Spellman said.

Air quality in the Imperial County already has difficulty meeting state and federal standards, and the eventual shrinking of the Salton Sea is only bound to make things worse:

An estimated 45,000 acres will be exposed in the next 70 years due to the transfer of water and the diminishing inflows to the sea. Determining who is legally liable for the emissions, Spellman told the board, will depend on why the shoreline receded. “IID is responsible for mitigating air quality impacts from shoreline exposed by the transfer,” Spellman said.

Read the full text of this story from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.

May 28, 2008 · Filed Under Imperial Irrigation District & Imperial Valley, Salton Sea

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California desalination effort info release: Sea of Cortez to the Salton Sea channel

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 25, 2008 at 7:22 am

Please, folks, take this with a grain of salt. No, on second thought, grab the whole salt shaker…. From Helium.com:

PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
To be placed in all California Newspapers as an informational news release

Announcing the release of information on a US & Mexico joint effort project known as the Sea of Cortez to the Salton Sea Desalination Channel

Let me point out that this “press release” is posted on Helium.com and not from the State of California. So what is this ‘channel’?

The Channel is a proposed project, a large canal actually, proposed to be built from the Sea of Cortez, Mexico, to, and as far north as, Palm Springs, California. Though, proposals vary, on its width, from between one to two miles wide, it will be deep enough for the largest of ships to travel. It is called a channel, instead of a canal, because that is the legal definition for such a project. On the United States side, it will run from the United States/Mexico border, just west of Calexico, northerly to Palm Desert, CA; 115 miles through Imperial County and, at least, 66 miles through Riverside County and, further if it goes to Palm Springs, CA. Upon the commitments of former President Fox and current President Lopez of Mexico, and Governor Eugenio Elorduy of the State of Baja, Mexico, the proponents, the National Outdoor Recreation Council (NORC), correctly assumed that there will be built, concurrently, a matching Mexican channel from the Gulf of California to the United States/Mexico border.

Okay…. a shipping channel from the Sea of Cortez to Palm Springs. An earlier post by the same person months ago talked of cruise ships docking in Indio and heading towards Indian casinos, along with a port 2 miles wide in El Centro…. This ‘press release’ continues, and tells of how the Clinton administration dissed the channel, but not Governor Schwarzenegger:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was first made aware of NORC’s Channel Proposal by DR. Abe Beagles on August 18, 2005. Dr. Beagles and a team of six international scientists had done an extensive reclamation study to see if either Electro-coagulation or the Plasma Incubator Reactor System, a revolutionary desalination process, could restore the Salton Sea.The report was then delivered to the Governor in 2003. Shortly after his personal examination and meetings with key individuals, throughout the United States and Mexico, he soon became convinced of both its validity and its potential but, was forewarned by the California Legislature against releasing it to the public until further, more thorough, examination by them. He acquiesced to their experienced judgment, in part. Indirectly, though, on January 5, 2006, he released, the Channel’s income potential, and some other aspects, in his State of the State address.

Hmmm… Schwarzenegger talking about the channel in his 2006 State of the State address? I guess me, you, and the entire media industry must have somehow missed that….

Throughout the following two years, the Governor only hinted, in public, about the forthcoming green technologies but, it wasn’t until his most recent State of the State address, on January 8, 2008, that he began to unveil the Channel. Therein, he revealed the need to re-build (to modernize) California’s antiquated water production and distribution system.

Ha! And you & I thought the Guv was only talking about a couple of new dams, but really he’s talking about the Salton Sea channel with the “Plasma Incubator Reaction System”! Talk about bait and switch…. So now, says this post, they need to set up “Harbor Improvement Districts” in Riverside, Imperial & San Diego counties, but they need public support for this:

Private Donations are Required to Form the Harbor Improvement Districts
NORC plans to process the Petitions to Form the Harbor Improvement Districts that are necessary, by law, to govern the construction and management of the Channel. They do not, however, have the funding to complete this monumental task, at present. As such, they will require significant (tax exempt) donations to perform this great task. Please support the Channel, and the development of its green technologies, by sending your donations directly to NORC.

And there’s even an address you can send your money to! (But first, send some to me, okay?)

And now, let’s talk benefits: 30 million acre-feet of per year of desalinated water; electricity produced and sold to the Harbor Improvement Districts for only 1 cent per kilowatt hour; but wait! there’s more!

At maximum build out, the Channel is estimated, by NORC, to generate, approximately, $92.12 trillion dollars per year, net profit, in private income from the sales of water, hydrogen, electricity, development, precious metals retrieval, and the manufacture of new automobiles. That’s correct, hydrogen will be sold, as well. This is because hydrogen is a by-product of the desalination method Dr. Beagles proposes. Not only can the Channel produce as much as 300 million acre feet, per year, of desalinated water but, it can also produce 4 million acre feet, per year, of compressed hydrogen. This is more than 20 times that needed to fuel all the passenger vehicles expected to be on the road in California in 2020; that is, if they are all hydrogen powered vehicles, of course. Though, there are expected to be a number of other profitable sources, NORC only estimated these. At a simple one (1) percent tax, this would mean, a maximum yearly expected revenue of $1.24 trillion dollars per year. Even at 10 percent of maximum build out, the Channel is expected to generate additional revenue, for the State of California, the affected Counties, and the United States, of $92.4 billion dollars per year.

92 trillion dollars per year in private income, and 92.4 billion in revenue for the government?! Bye bye budget deficit!!! And by the way, didn’t he say 30 million acre-feet of desalinated water earlier? and now it’s 300 acre-feet? Ahh, but who cares, we’ll all be rolling in the trillions of dollars anyway, while driving our hydrogen powered cars to board cruise ships in Palm Springs.

But what about the environmentalists? Rejoice, tree huggers everywhere! The channel will reduce environmental impacts to insignificant!

In accordance with the vast body of environmental law, today, any new water production and distribution system would have to be designed, in such a way, as to reduce environmental impacts to insignificance. Prior to the Channel, this was considered an impossible task. The Channel exceeds these expectations. It will not only maintain environmental impacts below threshold but, it will allow for the restoration of the many significant negative environmental impacts that the prior existing water production and distribution system caused. It is an environmentalists dream come true.

Yeah, right…. Earlier versions of this post mentioned removing every single dam in the Western United States, because the Salton Sea channel would provide enough water for all. Of course they didn’t give any details on how they would distribute that water to everyone….

Coming next week, Aqua Blog Maven will unveil a enormous investment opportunity to solve world hunger while eliminating global warming and unwanted facial hair!

You can read the full text of this ‘press release’ by clicking here.

May 25, 2008 · Filed Under Salton Sea, Weird & Wacky Water News

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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Salton Sea plan killed in Senate; bill never brought to vote; drive for restoration stalls

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 23, 2008 at 6:32 am

From MyDesert.com:

State senators Thursday killed a bill to set up a new agency to oversee the dying Salton Sea’s restoration.

Senate Bill 1256 never came up for a vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee, which held the bill, as well as scores of other measures that were projected to add new costs at a time when the state budget is about $15 billion short. The committee staff had estimated the sea bill by Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, could cost more than $800,000 a year to operate, though the staff analysis also acknowledged that many of the potential costs of the new agency were unknown.

“It stalls it big time,” Riverside County Supervisor Roy Wilson said of the restoration plan.

Peter Nelson, chair of the Salton Sea Authority board, agreed the committee’s inaction set back the project but acknowledged the budget is a major obstacle this year. “Any project in California that is going to spend money in this coming budgetary year is going to have a hard time getting traction,” Nelson said.

Still, the delay only makes the recovery work more difficult, he said of the sea whose drying lakebed will likely create air quality issues in the Coachella and Imperial valleys in the near future. “The tragedy for the sea is that every year that goes by, it will become more and more difficult to have a reasonable restoration plan move forward,” Nelson said.

Ducheney has said she might try another run at SB 187, the Salton Sea restoration bill, and is exploring her options on reviving this bill. She concedes it’s going to be a difficult sell this year.

Nelson emphasized the state is legally responsible to address air and water quality issues and said failure to meet those obligations will damage not only the environment but the health and economic viability of the region. But he added the sea is just one of the state’s stalled water projects that also include shoring the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which is the switching station for the water serving 25 million Californians. “If you can’t get the Delta issue solved, how can we get the Salton Sea solved?” Nelson asked.

Read the full text of this story from MyDesert.com by clicking here.

May 23, 2008 · Filed Under Salton Sea

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State Senate Appropriations Committee to consider bill for Salton Sea restoration

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 6, 2008 at 5:30 am

From the Imperial Valley Press:

The Senate Appropriations Committee will hear a Senate bill that could be one of the critical components of the Salton Sea restoration. Authored by Sen. Denise Moreno Ducheny, D-San Diego, Senate Bill 1256 would establish the Salton Sea Restoration Council to oversee the project and issues regarding the sea.

The Salton Sea, plagued by environmental issues and shrinking due to a lessened supply of agricultural runoff due to water transfers, is lacking in direction of how and who is going to pay for its salvage.

The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up SB 1256 on Monday. Ducheny could not be reached for comment Monday.

As it stands, the bill would establish a state agency to head the restoration and make other decisions pertaining to the sea.

Read more on this story from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.

May 6, 2008 · Filed Under Salton Sea

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Imperial Irrigation District gets a little water credited towards last year’s overuse; also gives $25k to the Salton Sea Authority

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 23, 2008 at 6:32 am

First, the Salton Sea. From the Imperial Valley Press Online:

Being a part of the conversation of what happens to the Salton Sea is worth another $25,000 to the Imperial Irrigation District board. The board voted 3-2 Tuesday to give additional money to the Salton Sea Authority, an agency some say is failing.

Directors Mike Abatti and John Pierre Menvielle voted against the money that is adding to the $75,000 already given to the SSA this year by IID. “I don’t think it’s responsible to continue funding something without a position (on the sea),” Abatti said.

The IID board has not taken a position on the restoration plans for the Salton Sea and is awaiting the environmental impact report.

But a majority of the board including Director James Hanks, who voted to give more money to the SSA, said the IID needs to take a stand. “There are huge questions about air mitigation and who’s responsible for that,” Hanks said. “It’s time to give clear direction to this board. If we don’t have a voice on the Salton Sea Authority, what voice would we have?”

Read the full text of this story from the Imperial Valley Press Online by clicking here.

From KXO Radio, news that the IID has been credited with 4000 acre-feet of water against the 17,000 acre-feet that the IID overused last year:

King told the IID Board of Directors Tuesday he had requested the Bureau Of Reclamation allow the IID to be credited with the unused apportionment of Metropolitan Water District and Nevada 2005 entitlement. He said since the IID was the only District to request the unused apportionments, the Bureau agreed, but said they had to split the Nevada apportionment with the state of Arizona. King said that means the IID was given 4,000 acre-feet of water to be used in the payback of last years over-run.

That means only 13,000 acre-feet to go. Full text from KXO by clicking here.

I wonder what the “unused apportionment of Metropolitan Water District” water is. With MWD buying ag water and saying that even with conservation, they will be reaching into their reserves this year, how can there be any “unused apportionment”?

April 23, 2008 · Filed Under Imperial Irrigation District & Imperial Valley, Salton Sea

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At the Salton Sea, an environmental disaster looms

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 12, 2008 at 8:36 am

From the Economist:

FEW people visit the Salton Sea these days, though when the wind is in the right quarter tens of thousands can smell it. The shores of California’s biggest lake are studded with dead fish and dilapidated mobile homes. Photographers occasionally use it as an apocalyptic backdrop. It is slowly becoming more toxic, with the decline likely to accelerate. Yet the state that preaches environmentalism to the rest of the world appears oddly unsure of what to do.

The Salton Sea is not a natural body of water, having been formed when the Colorado River surged through a temporary headgate on an irrigation canal in 1905. Since then, the sea has been sustained by the prodigious irrigation drainage flows which originate from the Imperial Valley. However, the recent QSA agreement requires the farmers to be more effiicient with their use of water, thus reducing flows into the Salton Sea. And so, the sea is slowly shrinking, which is causing a host of problems for man & bird alike.

Last spring California’s resources chief opted for a plan to rescue the sea that involves a series of channels, a 52-mile (84km)-long sea wall and $8.9 billion in capital costs. Few think it has any chance of being enacted. Thanks in part to Hurricane Katrina, money and political attention is concentrated on the crumbling levees around Sacramento, the state capital. Compared with the dire consequences of a collapse there, the Salton Sea’s slow death does not seem pressing. Greg Smith, a local businessman, sums up the prevailing mood as “Aw, shucks”.

As its grand schemes falter, the state is pressing ahead with a more modest plan to turn between 400 and 800 acres (160-320 hectares) of the sea into shallow ponds. This would moisten a bit of the exposed lake bed and provide an emergency stopover for the enormous flocks of geese, avocets, grebes and teal that visit the Salton Sea. Yet it is not clear how even such an inadequate solution would be paid for. California’s budget crisis means money for new projects is hard to come by. The Salton Sea Authority, which oversees recovery efforts, has struggled to pay the rent for its offices.

What this article fails to mention is that the state accepted responsibility for restoring the sea in some way, at least to mitigate air quality and wildlife impacts. The locals desperately want to see the sea returned to it’s former glory; however, such efforts would be costly and take decades to accomplish, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, and furthermore, the state is not legally required to fix water quality issues. Meanwhile, funding for the expensive restoration effort as passed by the legislature does not seem imminent, and the sea continues to shrink and dry up.

Read the full text of this article from the Economist by clicking here. More on Salton Sea issues by checking out Aquafornia’s Salton Sea category - click here.

April 12, 2008 · Filed Under Salton Sea

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Public private partnership may be the way to fund Salton Sea restoration efforts

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 3, 2008 at 4:36 am

From MyDesert.com, this commentary, written by Brian Nestande, government affairs consultant and a candidate for the 64th State Assembly District:

Gov. Schwarzenegger recently spoke of his initiative to build public/private partnerships to help improve California’s infrastructure.

Locally, we have an opportunity in the Coachella Valley to initiate our own public/ private partnership to better our entire region and restore the Salton Sea. The project has the potential to enhance our environment and improve our local economy for generations to come. I am committed to help bring together the necessary representatives from the private sector and government agencies in order to begin the process of restoration of the Sea.

The effort to restore the Salton Sea is floundering. The future of the Sea leaves us with few options as water levels continue to decrease. The sea will ultimately become either a large sump turning into a dust bowl or a vibrant eco-system with reasonable residential and tourist industry development with fantastic recreational opportunities.

Noting that the nearly $9 billion restoration plan is unlikely to be funded, and current budget woes don’t make any money look very forthcoming, Mr. Nestande says the answer is in public-private partnerships, much like Schwarzenegger has been looking at for other state projects:

In utilizing a public private partnership, we must first design a project which is financially feasible through local bonding and private investment. By creating self-contained lakes in the North and South part of the Sea, (the size of the lakes should be determined by financing which is provable) we can have recreational lakes within 5-7 years. Engineering and financial studies showed that one of the proposed lakes alone would be four times larger than Big Bear Lake and can be built in the north part of the sea for less than 500 million dollars.

Read more of Nestande’s ideas for the Salton Sea by clicking here.

April 3, 2008 · Filed Under Salton Sea

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Salton Sea: A great time for bird-watching at one of the nation’s best spots

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 30, 2008 at 9:43 am

With the Colorado River rarely reaching the Gulf of California most months of the year, the Salton Sea has become a critical link on the Pacific Flyway. Over 400 species have been documented there, many of them endangered or threatened. The Salton Sea is home to eared grebes, endangered brown pelicans, great blue herons, ospreys, burrowing owls, gulls, ducks, geese and terns; and not to mention the hundreds of thousands more birds that make the stop on their annual migration.

From MyDesert.com:

More than 380 species of birds have flocked to the Salton Sea for mating season, drawing hundreds of binocular-toting spectators to the state’s largest lake. “People love it because there’s so many different species,” said Jose Renteria, biological science aid at the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge. “We tell them to come in the morning because it’s a great time to explore.”

The Salton Sea is an important stop along the Pacific Flyway - a sort of freeway for millions of migratory birds as they travel south for the winter and north in the spring every year.

The most popular bird, Renteria said, is the burrowing owl often found in the Imperial Valley. Birders also have the chance of spying Caspian Terns, California Brown Pelicans, American White Pelicans, White-Faced Ibis, flamingos, ducks, Yellow-Footed Gulls, Soras and Abert’s Towhee.

Read the rest of this story from MyDesert.com by clicking here.

For more on birdwatching at the Salton Sea, as well as information on other Salton Sea issues, click here or click here.

March 30, 2008 · Filed Under Salton Sea

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Bill to create council to oversee Salton Sea restoration effort clears committee and heads to appropriations panel

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 26, 2008 at 5:57 am

From MyDesert.com:

A new agency to oversee restoration of the Salton Sea passed muster Tuesday in its first state legislative review, but it still appears to face plenty of work before it becomes a reality.

The state Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee approved the bill by Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, to create the Salton Sea Restoration Council with 14 local and state voting members. But Senate committee members passed the bill only after raising questions about issues from the role and power of the proposed agency to its financial obligations. “This is still very murky,” Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, said.

Ducheny, who also represents Cathedral City, agreed that the bill, as several committee members commented, was a “work in progress,” but she stressed that it’s important work that everyone agrees needs to be done. “This (restoration) is a 75-year project,” Ducheny said. “It needs a system for a governance council. It needs a manner in which decisions can be made.”

The bill now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee. For the rest of this story from MyDesert.com, click here.

Salton Sea photo from the Aquafornia photo library on flickr. Click here to check out more of my pictures from California’s waterscapes by clicking here.

March 26, 2008 · Filed Under Salton Sea

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Salton Sea Authority goes begging local governments for funds

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 25, 2008 at 5:27 am

From MyDesert.com:

Salton Sea Authority members are asking the local governments they represent to toss the group a life preserver - more money to keep it afloat. The authority projects it will have only $97 in available funds by the end of April.

Riverside County supervisors at their meeting today will consider giving the authority $25,000 for day-to-day operations. “It will allow us some clerical support,” said Supervisor Roy Wilson, an authority member.

Other authority members, including the Coachella Valley Water District, Imperial County and the Imperial Irrigation District, have been or will also be asked to make a similar-sized payment.

“It should get us through another six months or so while we assess what the state is going to do,” Wilson said.

Read more of this story from MyDesert.com by clicking here.

March 25, 2008 · Filed Under Salton Sea

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The Demise of the Salton Sea

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 9, 2008 at 8:44 am

From MyDesert.com, a lengthy article written by a reader, Cliff Dove, about the Salton Sea and the restoration plan. It’s rather lengthy and it’s hard to pull a good excerpt that will capture the essence of the article and make sense out of context at the same time. Here’s my best attempt:

The State Department of Water Resources states that they expect the inflow to drop to as little as 650,000 acre feet per year, but they have failed to state any visible cause for a reduction of this magnitude. Are they aware of some fact that has yet to be passed on to the public? Where is that water going?

Why has there been such a concerted effort for the last 15 or twenty years to ignore the true plight of the Salton Sea? Why has not a viable system to flush the waters of the inland lake of its salt and nutrient buildup been proposed.

Years ago it became evident that the Salton Sea would some day sink into a condition wherein the salts would rule out any marine life and that this condition would destroy what has become a major wetlands area for the sustenance of wildlife. Years ago the residents of the area asked that this condition be reversed and that the Salton Sea be restored to the conditions that sustained its viability as one of the areas recreational wonderlands. To this end, in 1993 the two water agencies in the area, IID and CVWD, along with the two counties in which the lake is situated formed the Salton Sea Authority.

Among the stated objectives of the Salton Sea Authority were the maintenance of the elevation and the reduction of salts and other water quality issues. They failed miserably to do either, but did manage to convince the local population that they were in fact mounting a campaign to control the future of the lake. In the end, all they could come up with was a small lake at both ends with a large, mostly dry sump for salts in the middle of what is now the Salton Sea. They claimed this was the only answer available because of the lower water inflows expected in the future.

Then the State of California, in the form of the Department of Water Resources, entered the picture with an even less appealing fix for the Salton Sea. They first envisioned a large repository for salty water, slowly drying as the inflow was reduced over the years by reductions in field runoff. They admitted it would be rather bleak; with only enough water used to keep the wind from causing what has now become know as the “Owens Lake” effect. Then, after local complaints about the plan, it was revised to include a small lake at the North end of the lake with channels on each side from about mid lake to the North.

I think the writer is perhaps alleging a conspiracy theory here:

So I guess that statement to Steve Horvitz [reference to the article's opening] makes little sense if one considers that the water in question, that 1.3mafy that runs into the Salton Sea, contains salt, just like the Mohawk/Welton canal water. And of course, the Salton Sea is not near the ocean either! What could one do with all that salt? Why naturally, it must be evident that one would need a “salt sump” in which one could put the salty by product of making potable water. So in 1993 we have this RO plant, the Salton Sea Authority is formed and within a few years some water agency staffer states “they will get that 1.3mafy”, and now, the water agencies want to create a “Salt Sump” near the runoff water.

I think he is saying that the intention is to take the runoff water from the Imperial Valley, desalinate it and ship it out of the area, leaving the dried up remains of the Salton Sea as the repository for the discharge of the desalination plant. I think. Confused? You can read the full text of the article from MyDesert.com by clicking here.

March 9, 2008 · Filed Under Salton Sea

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Desalinating Salton Sea: the right solution at the right time, says Indio resident

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 6, 2008 at 8:32 am

From MyDesert.com:

The coming water shortages in the Coachella and Imperial valleys ought to be sufficient to convince the local cities to take an active role conserving that precious resource.

The situation is only going to get worse if global warming becomes the calamity many are predicting it to be. The southwestern part of the United States is already the driest part of the country; global warming will accelerate the rate at which it will become even drier. The local part of the southwest is largely desert and therefore even drier than the rest.

How are we going to satisfy the demand for water in the future?

We can’t expect to get any more from the Colorado River; its water is fully allocated. We are using the water in the local aquifer at a rate which is causing concern and must find a way to recharge it. Where else can we go for water? Conservation methods will help but that is not a long-term solution. The governor is trying to get the legislature to do something about the Sacramento/San Joaquin River Delta to make more water available for Southern California, but it is unlikely he will have any success. The legislators from the northern part of the state want to keep the water for their own needs. Even if he were successful the water would probably go to Los Angeles and San Diego.

For us in the Coachella and Imperial valleys there is, however, a silver lining in this very dark cloud. It is called the Salton Sea. It can be the solution to our part of the problem.

There are 7.5 million acre-feet of water in the Salton Sea. If we were to build a water desalination facility at the sea capable of producing up to 1million acre-feet per year, we would have enough water to satisfy all of our future needs. If we, then, replenished the desalinated Salton Sea water with an equal quantity of water from the Gulf of California by way of an open waterway operating continuously on a 365-day 24/7 basis, we could provide a never-ending supply of that quantity of desalinated water every year for the foreseeable future. The water would be fully desalinated for residential use and partially desalinated for agricultural or industrial purposes. The gulf water should be made to generate electricity as it falls 220-plus feet to the level of the Salton Sea.

For the rest of this story from MyDesert.com, click here.

March 6, 2008 · Filed Under Salton Sea

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People of the Sea: High Country News covers the people side of the Salton Sea

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 29, 2008 at 3:26 pm

From High Country News:

The village of Bombay Beach, Calif., is quiet, save for the occasional screams of gulls on the nearby Salton Sea. It’s 10:30 a.m. on a winter morning. Gusts of wind flecked with sand and salt whip for-sale signs in front of broken-down mobile homes and boarded-up bungalows. Front yards and empty lots are strewn with the relics of lost hope - an abandoned green motorboat tagged with graffiti, lifeless sedans, rotting camper shells, piles of used clothing, filthy couches, broken bottles, plastic garbage bags.

Eight years ago, census takers counted 366 residents in Bombay Beach; it’s unclear how many live here now. Bombay Beach does not attract many newcomers. The current townies tend to stick to themselves, gathering for entertainment at the town’s popular bar, the Ski Inn, where Mayor Wacko holds court.

On this particular morning, Wacko sits on a barstool, sipping a pink drink. His real name is Wayne Graham, but he prefers his nickname, which someone gave him years ago for reasons he can’t remember. He is not really the mayor, either; his bar friends gave him the title and it stuck. He is 70, thick-set, with a gray walrus moustache and sad blue eyes. He struggles to compete with a TV tuned to a World War II movie with lots of explosions and a woman at the end of the bar who’s bellowing that she’s thinner than most of the old cows in Bombay Beach.

Wacko has been enchanted with the Salton Sea for 35 years, ever since he worked for the telephone company in Long Beach. He remembers the waning heyday of the Sea, back in the 1970s, when it was still known as California’s Riviera. Cars lined up for miles to get a beachside camping spot. Tourists came to fish for orange-mouthed corvina, to race speedboats and water-ski, to spot celebs like Sonny Bono and Frank Sinatra. They came to escape the frenzy of Los Angeles, just 180 miles or so to the west.

Read the full text of this story from the High Country News by clicking here.

February 29, 2008 · Filed Under Salton Sea

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Salton Sea Authority hopes to remain a viable force in the face of funding difficulties

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 28, 2008 at 4:13 pm

From MyDesert.com:

The Salton Sea Authority projects to have $97 in available funds by the end of April.

At their meeting today, Authority board members will discuss doing away with virtually all committees, and changing their meeting schedule from monthly to bi-monthly or quarterly.

Despite the agency’s continuing challenges, members said it’s important that they stick together, as the process for restoring California’s largest lake becomes more state-driven. “Eventually they are going to need us or somebody just like us to do anything out there,” said Riverside County Supervisor and Authority member Marion Ashley. “We have to hang around, stay a viable agency, stay involved in the issues, and be ready to act whenever the opportunity comes.”

Read the rest of the story from MyDesert.com by clicking here.

February 28, 2008 · Filed Under Salton Sea

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Salton Sea Authority’s money is drying up

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 28, 2008 at 6:50 am

From MyDesert.com:

As the Salton Sea slowly dries up and dies, members of a local group fighting to preserve it don’t want to see the same thing happen to their agency.

The Salton Sea Authority, without an infusion of cash from its members, expects to run out of funds by April. Its executive director and other paid employees have left the organization, leaving staff from member agencies in charge on a rotating basis.

While the group will discuss its future at its meeting today, its mission is as important as ever, Imperial County Supervisor and Authority member Gary Wyatt said Wednesday. “We need this vehicle to have a way for the region to be working together and be a cohesive force to drive the restoration efforts,” he said.

More on this story from MyDesert.com by clicking here.

Salton Sea picture by flickr photographer kallao.

February 28, 2008 · Filed Under Salton Sea

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