Historically, irrigation has made residential and agricultural use of desert lands possible. Aqueducts, canals, dams, drains and tunnels were built across large swaths of the West to provide the water needed for residential, industrial, and farming purposes. The Colorado River provided much of that water in the past, but unconstrained population growth, together with drought and climate change, has undermined the myth of never-ending fresh water.
The Salton Sea was created in 1905 by a breach of an irrigation canal from the Colorado River in Imperial County. For two years, water from the Colorado River rushed into a low-lying area called the Salton Sink, creating the body of water we currently call the Salton Sea. Over the millennia, this area has flooded and dried up many times. The current Salton Sea relies almost completely on the Colorado River for its water in the form of irrigation runoff from Imperial and Coachella Valley farms, and three small rivers. Agricultural runoff is high in salts, fertilizers, and pesticides, and climate change has accelerated the evaporation of the Sea, increasing salinity even more.
The New and Alamo Rivers run from Mexico north to the Sea, carrying sewage and other pollutants, which the few outdated purification plants cannot adequately remove. The Sea was used as a bombing training ground during WWII, and leftover munitions litter the lake bottom, adding another source of pollution. The death of fish and wildlife due to loss of habitat, pollution and increasing salinity is an example of the worldwide trend toward the destruction of species, which will eventually also threaten human life.
The Salton Sea began to dry up and shrink when much of the Colorado River water that had been sustaining it was instead diverted and sold to San Diego, Los Angeles, and Coachella Valley cities under the terms of the Quantification Settlement Agreement, in 2003. The agreement required the participating water districts to provide some fresh water to mitigate the losses to the Sea for fifteen years. After the mitigation water was shut off in January 2018, the shrinking of the Sea accelerated.
In 2019, the Salton Sea Authority, Riverside County, and Imperial County began circulating a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in support of a proposal by the Salton Sea Management Program (SSMP) to build small habitat ponds, including the North Lake recreation area, and to otherwise furrow the dry lakebed to control dust. The history of Owens Lake in central California has proven that furrowing is an expensive process funded by taxpayers which must be performed over and over again, and still results in blowing dust and increased air pollution. When we asked Riverside County and the Coachella Valley Water District to amend their MOU to include “a comprehensive analysis of ocean water import,” they refused.
The Salton Sea Coalition began to lobby the Coachella Valley city councils to pressure the counties and state to amend the MOU to include “a comprehensive analysis of ocean water import” to restore the Sea. The first city to pass a resolution amending the MOU was Desert Hot Springs. By the end of 2019, all nine of the Coachella Valley city councils, the Torres Martinez tribe (which owns a portion of land at the southern edge of the Salton Sea), and the College of the Desert Board of Trustees had passed resolutions in support of further consideration of ocean water importation.
In 2019, the California Natural Resources Agency promised to form an Independent Review Panel, to be headed by Dr. Brent Haddad of UC Santa Cruz, to study ocean water import. In 2021, a request for proposals was issued, and a total of 18 engineering proposals were submitted. In a sham review process over the next year, all but three proposals were eliminated because of “fatal flaws” which were never described to the vendors up front.
While the review process was going on, we continued to gather support from our local governments with resolution campaigns in 2021 and 2022. In 2021, seven of the nine cities passed resolutions calling on the SSMP to allocate $2 million to fund an engineering study of water importation. In January 2022, Jenny Ross, of the Stout Research Center, released a groundbreaking new report, Potential Major Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Proposed Salton Sea Long-Range Plans, that highlighted the massive emissions of CO2 and methane which will be released should the Sea be allowed to dry up. Seven Coachella Valley cities again passed resolutions supporting ocean water importation to restore the Salton Sea ecosystem and prevent these massive emissions of CO2 and methane.
In the summer of 2022, the independent review panel announced their result – they created a single combined plan, which was designed to fail their own criteria, from the three plans which passed the fatal flaw analysis. Instead of ocean water import, the panel then recommended pursuing a plan of “swapping” farmer subsidies to obtain more Colorado River water, using outdated data and incorrect calculations, which will neither add new water to cover the dry playa, nor prevent further shrinking and degradation of the Sea.
In October 2022, the SSC joined with the Desert Interfaith Council to organize a prayer vigil at the Salton Sea attended by over 200 members of all faiths. This event was a big success. The two organizations are planning another vigil on November 12, 2023.
On December 3, 2022, SSC joined with UC Riverside Palm Desert Center to hold a Community Forum on the Salton Sea. Several UCR scientists and medical researchers presented their project data on conditions at the Sea and the health effects of Salton Sea dust on respiratory health. Representatives of water import proposals explained the methods and costs of their projects, and the benefits of using ocean water importation to restore the Salton Sea. They also exposed how the UC Santa Cruz panel’s denial of water import’s feasibility was based on bad science, favoritism, and fraud. There has never been a legitimate, objective analysis of water import proposals. We are urging the Army Corps of Engineers to undertake such a study as part of their on-going “Imperial Streams Salton Sea and Tributaries Feasibility Study.”
We must use our water resources more efficiently and responsibly, based on sound scientific data and good public policy, to ensure that we restore the balance of nature in our stewardship of Mother Earth.
Salton Sea Coalition 