Salton Sea Update

As you may know, the Salton Sea is a mess. Imperial Valley is at the south end of the sea and home to some of the most obscene abusers of water in the West. Here are some recent stories:

In the first, a group of dissidents are trying to stop various water agreements until they are relieved of liability from the dust that's accumulating as the Salton Sea dries out. (The drying is because of reduced waste from IV; the dust is toxic because of the agricultural chemicals that pollute the "Sea".) As they say, "It's our belief until the Imperial Valley gets total protection from the Salton Sea, we can’t be transferring water because it's our only leverage." Translated, that means they will not sell water until they are relieved of the liability from their pollution. Nice.

In a second story, the Salton Sea Authority tries to justify its existence when the government fails to fund it. They are trying to scrape up $85,000 to keep the shoestring operation going.

Another story has some different details:

It's not yet known exactly what this will mean for the troubled Salton Sea. Despite a reduced staff, board members say they're still committed to trying to save the lake, which left untouched will dry up into a dust bowl, causing environmental problems for the region.
[snip]
State officials will meet next month to nail down a conservancy or locally based state agency they hope will breathe life into a nearly $9 billion restoration plan that's stalled in the Legislature.

It seems that the local governments have dropped support because they expect the state to step in. The article says that the SSA costs $50,000 a month to run, and that they will try to trim expenses to a more reasonable $30,000/month. Presumably, it take a lot of good money to fill in a bad-money hole.

Note that their favored project will cost $9 BILLION. Unless we are talking about Iraq, that's real money!

And finally, IID is getting a little less crazy:

The district’s proposed plan to balance the supply and demand in 2008 was unveiled Tuesday, the first time in recent history water usage will be limited.

The district is struggling to stay within its designated 3.1 million acre-feet of water from the Colorado River, part of the 2003 Quantification Settlement Agreement.

Those in the agriculture industry are concerned, Nicole Rothfleisch said, as limiting the water supply to farmers immediately “would cause severe hardships.”

Rothfleisch, the executive director of the Imperial County Farm Bureau, said farmers whose crops and soil types require more than the proposed 5.13 acre-feet would be impacted the most.

Duh. IID farmers have been wasting water for years, and 3.1MAF creates little value down there. If that water were used in cities, it would solve -- for at least 30 years -- all of Southern California's water problems. Those who abuse resources should lose them. I hope that some politicians are brave enough to take on the farmers and help the other 90 percent of Californians!

Bottom Line: Imperial Valley and the Salton Sea is a twilight zone that reality ignores. Bring them back to Earth!