Salton Sea 'starter plan' must not be the final word

The Salton Sea faces a crucial deadline this year as water transfers that have been keeping it at least marginally stabilized come to an end. In the face of a bleak future predicted to be full of toxic dust clouds that will choke already vulnerable residents of the region, California officials have put forth a 10-year blueprint to help mitigate this threat.

All should be thankful for this move, but, in key ways, it seems to amount to one baby step for man, one baby step for the dying lake.

Here’s some perspective behind this pessimism.

The Salton Sea, California’s largest lake, has been in trouble for a long time. Its shores have been retreating at an alarming rate and the water that remains has been getting increasingly saltier. Researchers say this environment is becoming more and more toxic to even the hardiest of fish whose numbers are a key component in a complex ecosystem that supports other wildlife like waterfowl migrating along the Pacific Flyway.

The plan: California unveils 10-year map for the Salton Sea 

As part of the 2003 Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA), Imperial Irrigation District committed to selling more of its Colorado River water allotment to the Coachella Valley Water District and the San Diego County Water Authority. For the first 15 years of the QSA, IID would sell increasingly larger amounts of its water to these two while continuing to provide mitigation flows to the sea.

This year, 2017, is the final year of those mitigation flows. The already compromised sea will begin drying up even more rapidly in 2018.

Remember, we’ve been waiting for the state's promised sea restoration since the QSA’s inception. Along the way, plans have been put forth and shot down time after time, including an elaborate 2007 plan that envisioned a new horseshoe lake being created at the sea with complex canals and pumps that would create a stable environment. Its $9 billion price tag pretty much sealed its doom.

The 10-year plan put forth recently, after yet more delay, recommends the creation of a series of ponds and wetlands eventually covering thousands of acres that will continue to provide wildlife habitat while keeping toxic dust at bay. The total price tag: $383 million.

Great, except that so far the state has committed only $80.5 million to the effort. The other $300-plus million would be parsed out in $20 million to $40 million chunks hopefully allocated over the next decade. In addition, this $383 million is nowhere near the scope of the 2007 plan's $9 billion, comprehensive solution. It’s not even in the same ballpark as the $1.5 billion to $2 billion in total costs that Bruce Wilcox, California’s assistant secretary for Salton Sea policy, says likely will be needed for a permanent mitigation effort.

So, even if this all comes to pass, the plan is anything but comprehensive when it comes to the actual looming calamity that is the Salton Sea. This plan will still allow tens of thousands of acres of lake bed to become exposed and dry, the loss of vast wildlife habitat and, potentially, the threat of toxic dust clouds to those of us who live in the region.

To recap: As the deadline for a solution gets dangerously near, this is the proposal from Sacramento, which promised all those years ago under the QSA to “fix” the sea.

Get to work, folks, but this clearly is not enough.

This starting point must not become the end-all when it comes to sea restoration. IID has a strong hand in this game, thanks to the water rights it holds, and we expect officials there will continue to press for greater commitment to the sea from other partners.

Sacramento must ensure that funding for this work is a priority. During last fall’s campaign, Assemblyman Chad Mayes, that body’s top Republican, acknowledged that the state “bears an enormous responsibility” to come up with the money to fund a sea solution – an amount he said could “take billions.” He and Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia of Coachella must work to convince their powerful peers from metropolitan areas like Los Angeles that preventing catastrophe at the sea is in everyone’s interest.

In addition, Democratic Reps. Raul Ruiz of La Quinta and Juan Vargas of San Diego and Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris must continue pressing the sea’s case in the halls of Congress even if such efforts might not seem high priority for the new Trump administration.

The investment for a true solution rightfully should be shared by the federal government as the costs will be great but ultimately will benefit residents across the West.