Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
May 4, 2009
3. Watersheds –
Local leaders need to step up and save Salton Sea
The
Editorial
The effort to save the Salton Sea before it dries up and turns into a toxic dust bowl needs one more important ingredient besides water — local leadership. And that leadership is needed now.
The Salton Sea Authority, a coalition of local officials pushing for the sea's restoration, has become a shell of itself with no visible and consistent leadership since former executive directors Tom Kirk and Rick Daniels have moved on to become director of the Coachella Valley Association of Governments and Desert Hot Springs city manager, respectively.
That's led to reduced cheerleading for the restoration effort and far less attention on the state and national levels for a sea that, by 2018, is expected to shrink significantly and cause a disastrous environmental hazard when water transfers will reduce its primary source: agricultural runoff.
Lawmakers have been trying for years to come up with money — at least $6 billion — to launch a restoration program that would cost another $100 million a year to maintain. We've celebrated many of those small steps toward the ultimate goal — creating a recreation haven that
Fortunately, there is some more small progress on the legislative front. State Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, is carrying a bill that established the Salton Sea Restoration Council, a 14-member executive committee of local, state and tribal officials to find a way to save the state's largest lake. The bill passed the State Environmental Quality Committee on Monday.
Meanwhile, the Salton Sea Authority has pushed Sen. Barbara Boxer, R-Calif., to direct stimulus money toward the effort.
Ducheny deserves praise for her leadership, but her time in the Legislature expires next year. We're concerned that her successor might not have the expertise and dedication to continue the campaign.
We cannot wait any longer for
It makes sense to invest in a real solution, to revive the sea into a water playground and major asset to the local economy.
Spending federal stimulus money to find that solution is the way to go, despite what fiscal conservatives may be thinking — especially in this tough economic time.
The alternative, letting the sea evaporate, could be more costly in the long run. Controlling the dust would cost at least $1 million — with tens of millions more in annual costs. And we'd be left with a major dust bowl that would surely threaten the quality of life we all have become accustomed to living in the
Hear our call, local leaders, and step up to save the
If you don't, a foul wind will be blowing this way.#
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