As less farm runoff flowed to the sea, more of the shoreline was exposed to the desert winds, resulting in swirling clouds of dust that fouled the air in nearby communities. The dust has been blamed for driving up asthma-related emergency room visits to twice the state average.
Raul Ruiz, whose constituents live near the sea, said toxic elements such as selenium in the playa dust represent a known health risk. State and local agencies are trying to solve the problem.
Last year, the state completed acres of dust control projects and more work is underway. The Salton Sea has benefited from millions of dollars in past budgetary allocations and bond funding, but the money has never been enough to yield visible progress.
The prospect of an improved financial picture is encouraging to those long-accustomed to the inertia. The largest user of Colorado River water, the district has constantly urged the state to live up to its obligation to help the sea as required by the Quantification Settlement Agreement QSA.
An intriguing possibility that could contribute to sea restoration funding has emerged because the area around the Salton Sea is rich in lithium, a metal that is a key component of electric vehicle technology. Lithium extraction fees could be directed to Salton Sea improvement projects and greater dust control. Indeed, it appears the prospect of lithium extraction has merit.
In early July, automotive giant General Motors announced a multimillion-dollar investment for a lithium project at the Salton Sea Geothermal Field near Imperial. The project could be the largest of its kind in the United States if it begins producing in as planned. State officials know they have some catching up to do. The state aims to complete 30, acres of projects by , with at least half of those habitat projects, such as ponds and wetlands. The aim is to create aquatic habitat through a series of ponds to support fish-eating birds.
That destroys habitat for birds and can present respiratory health problems for anyone living nearby, in the form of airborne dust. Problem: Saline lakes are volatile in the sense that their ecology and composition change over time.
Prior to the damming of the Colorado River, the course of the River would change over time, sometimes carrying it through the Coachella-Imperial region on its way to the Gulf of California.
During these times, the region would fill with water, creating a huge, inland sea known as Lake Cahuilla, which could reach sizes of up to 26 times larger than the Salton Sea we know today. Problem: As is characteristic of drainage basins like the Salton Trough, their composition and ecology are in constant flux. Since the Colorado River is dammed, its natural meandering is no longer possible. The Salton Sea today is sustained mostly by agricultural runoff, not by the natural processes that used to see it fill, refill, and empty over time.
Natural inflows of water at the Salton Sea carry minerals and salts. However, the majority of water that flows into the Sea comes from Colorado River water, which is channeled to the Coachella and Imperial Valley region via aqueducts to irrigate agricultural fields. Some farms practice irrigation techniques that produce excess water , which then flows into the Salton Sea. This agricultural runoff carries high loads of nutrients from fertilizers used in the fields.
So, as water evaporates, the Sea accumulates a higher and higher concentration of fertilizers, affecting the ecosystem and air quality. Problem s : With the majority of its inflowing water being essentially wastewater, the Salton Sea becomes a collection pond for this agricultural runoff , what is termed an agricultural sump.
So the basin has a long history of alternately hosting a fresh water lake and being a dry, empty desert basin — according to the balance between inflow and evaporative loss. Humans are responsible for inundating the basin only once. But the Salton Sea is not just a story about the repeated failures of a human endeavour to control nature for human needs.
As a closed drainage basin that receives only inflows, the Salton Sea has become saltier and saltier every year. Beyond the social impacts faced by the 1. Engineers here have predicted that the local water table could eventually dry up, leaving the land unsuitable for planting. California historically used more than its normal year apportionment of Colorado River water, obtaining the excess from water apportioned to Arizona and Nevada but not used by those states, and by water designated as surplus by the Secretary of the Interior.
The amount of unused apportionment previously available to California has diminished, however, and is unlikely to be available in the future.
The QSA imposes water conservation measures within the IID service area to allow the transfer of this water elsewhere, which reduces the volume of agricultural runoff that constitutes the Salton Sea's chief source of water. IID is required to provide conserved water to the Sea to mitigate the effects of the transfer on salinity until After , however, the Sea's salinity is expected to exceed the tolerance limit for fish and, thus, mitigation for effects on salinity ceases at that time.
The reduction in water to the Sea after is anticipated to result in loss of the fishery, exposure of soils to wind erosion, and bird declines due to loss of food. Reduction of inflows to the Sea from other factors, such as water recycling in Mexico, is also contributing to increases in salinity and a declining sea elevation.
IID is currently petitioning to provide conserved water to the Salton Sea until rather than so that funds be employed for habitat mitigation sooner.
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