Salton Sea cleanup in jeopardy as states battle over Colorado River water
The Salton Sea is a salt flat and an important habitat for wildlife. Here, in the Salton District, it’s being drained and converted into a resort city
This week, the Bureau of Reclamation announced that it will be taking steps to remove its control of the Salton Sea, which straddles the banks of the Colorado River. It took the agency two decades to get to this point.
Environmentalists say that the state of California, as well as many of the states that border the river, is not helping with the state’s share of the project.
The Salton Sea is a salt flat and an important habitat for wildlife animals
An estimated 25 million fish, 25 million birds and 25 million mammals live in the Salton Sea. But because of the river’s water source, the salinity, temperature and pollution concerns are forcing the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to begin to tear down the state of California’s water control on the Salton Sea.
The Salton Sea is a salt flat and an important habitat for wildlife animals
The project will remove about 16,000 acres, and ultimately, the BOR estimates it could remove over 8,000 acres.
But it has taken over two decades for the project to get to this point. The state of California, and many of the states that border the river, are not helping with its share of the project.
The Salton Sea is a salt flat and an important habitat for wildlife animals
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2001 approved the project under the “Reclamation Act” in order to “maintain and enhance” the Colorado River, which is designated as a public trust water resource.
But the project was the subject of a lawsuit that was filed by environmentalists last April. A three-judge panel found that the environmental groups had standing to sue the BOR for failing to complete a necessary environmental assessment. The environmental assessment was supposed to have taken months of work, not decades, and included studies of everything from the salinity of the water table to the impacts from pumping too much water into the river.