A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
May 18, 2007
3. Watersheds
Foot-dragging on sea frustrating
By Jonathan Athens, staff writer
We’ll get to it tomorrow but tomorrow may be too late.
That’s how Salton Sea Authority Executive Director Rick Daniels summed up his frustration over bureaucratic foot dragging when it comes to coming up with a fix for the sea.
He and stakeholders will have to wait another week and chances are the price tag on a proposed fix, roughly estimated to cost $6 billion, will end up costing more.
California Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman was slated in late April to release a final plan that will outline how best to reverse 40 years of environmental decay and to revitalize the Salton Sea, the largest man-made lake in the state.
But now it seems the final plan won’t be ready for another seven to 10 days — almost one solid month from the time it was supposed to be ready.
The reason is because engineers are still studying the viability of proposed changes to the plan, said Sandy Cooney, spokesman for the resources agency.
“We’re doing the engineering, we’re talking to stakeholders. … We’re getting closer (to the final plan),” Cooney said.
He declined to say what specific changes environmental engineers have already made to the controversial draft plan that was released in late March.
Although he did not put a specific dollar figure on the final plan, Cooney did say it is likely the price tag will go up commensurate with the engineering changes.
The slow-moving approach has flustered stakeholders and now it seems time is truly running out. Scientists estimate the
“That is the single biggest problem this project has had — everybody says ‘mañana’,” Daniels said Thursday shortly after giving his report to the Authority’s board of directors.
Daniels said he is concerned the longer it takes for state officials to come up with a fix that stakeholders here and elsewhere agree upon, the longer it will take state lawmakers to come up with a plan to pay for a portion of the fix.
At issue has been whether the final plan will include recreational lakes in the southern portion of the sea, 70 percent of which is within
Area officials have made it clear to Chrisman’s office they want the final plan to include a recreational lake, which they say is critical for
They have said any final plan that does not include such a lake will not get the political support of local governments in this county.
And without political support, the chances the state will be able to rustle up the billions of dollars needed will also diminish.
Peter Nelson, the Authority’s vice president, made that sentiment clear in a five-page letter to Chrisman dated May 10.
“Without general local acceptance of a final plan, attempts to obtain the significant levels of funding necessary to implement a plan will surely fail,” Nelson wrote. #
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