March 19, 2024: Op Ed on the Salton Sea by Chuck Parker
On January 26, 2024 there was an opening ceremony at the Salton Sea for the construction of a big new plant to produce lithium. Presiding at the ceremony was John Podesta, who is the Senior Advisor to President Biden in implementing the $375 billion Clean Energy and Climate Change bill that was part of the Inflation Reduction Act passed in August of 2022. It was Podesta who worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to speed up the environmental review for the lithium plant. But at the same time, the Army Corps has recently announced that it is postponing a restoration plan for the Salton Sea until 2030 or 2032.
Many are saying that the method of extracting lithium at the Salton Sea is less damaging to the environment than traditional open pit mining and evaporation ponds. However, production will be going on next to the rapidly deteriorating Salton Sea which will produce toxic and wide spread dust storms that will endanger all of us who live within two hundred miles. Massive emissions of CO2 and methane will be released should the Sea be allowed to dry up. (See the report: Potential Major Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Proposed Salton Sea Long-Range Plans, by Jenny E. Ross, Stout Research Center.)
To really fight climate change, we must first find ways to restore our damaged earth to health. If we look at the Inflation Reduction Act closely, we see that it includes $60 billion in tax credits for clean energy manufacturing, and $30 billion in tax credits for production of solar and wind power, as well as small rebates for electric car buyers. There are also tax credits for nuclear power, and for carbon capture projects being promoted by Exxon Mobil. In addition, the fossil fuel industry will get access to more federal lands to drill for oil and gas. Addressing climate change can’t consist solely of shoveling huge amounts of money to energy industries – especially polluting industries like fossil fuels.
So the claim that lithium production will be environmentally friendly is false and deliberately misleading. The only way that producing lithium at the Salton Sea can be environmentally friendly, is if the Salton Sea is restored by refilling it with ocean water accompanied by desalination to produce fresh water. With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, there is enough money available to really solve the water shortage at the Salton Sea by restoring what was the largest remaining wetland in California. Ocean water import and desalination can be done for $3 billion, less than 1% of the $375 billion that has been allocated to address climate change!
This will also contribute in a real way to relieving the water shortage in the Colorado river basin by restoring the Salton Sea without placing any demand on the river for water. By refilling the sea with ocean water, and desalinating it to restore the lake’s salinity to a point that will support fish and birds, the lake
will contribute to the fight against climate change by keeping massive amounts of Carbon beneath the water and out of the atmosphere. Instead of sacrificing nature in order to develop lithium, it must go hand in hand with restoring and preserving nature. We can have lithium/green energy and a healthy Salton Sea!
Salton Sea Coalition 