Matt Weiser (Water Deeply) has a nice interview with Mike Cohen (Pacific Institute) about one of the most interesting policy conundrums in Colorado River Basin water governance – the question of the Salton Sea.
Here’s the sequence. California needs to figure out how to use less Colorado River water. Since the biggest chunk of the state’s Colorado River water goes to farms in the Imperial Valley, one obvious move is to improve ag water efficiency in Imperial. But when you do that, you reduce ag runoff, which is what fills the Salton Sea. Reduce that, the Sea shrinks in the hot desert sun, and…
It exposes lakebed, which creates dust, and that’s a major public health threat. The Imperial and Coachella valleys already fail to meet air-quality requirements, and asthma rates are already higher than the state average. So, your baseline is an already-bad air-quality situation, which is going to be exacerbated as the Salton Sea shrinks and more dust blows off that lakebed.
California has millions of dead trees to deal with. Both Owens Lake and the Salton Sea exposed areas could be covered with logs and wood chips to smother the area and keep the dust in place. With it being so arid it will take many years for those to fully rot and by the time they do they will likely also help transform the soil via fungi and bacteria and break down some of those pesticides and other chemicals.
A real interesting solution would be to make sure all inflows are treated so salts and contaminates are removed (RO) and then to also treat a portion of the sea water in there each year to gradually reduce the level of salts and contaminants. It’s not like they don’t have a good source of energy (solar in the dessert and/or the hydrothermal power) they could use, but it would be expensive, but it would also turn a polluted lake into one that could be used no matter what the water level remains.
Billions of dollars either way, but if you think longer term the last solution is the best because it means fresh fish and other wildlife benefits too.
I’m interested to see how much the Salton Sea increases this season from a wet year.
Regarding “Songbird’s” comment above–
“I’m interested to see how much the Salton Sea increases this season from a wet year.”
While somewhat counter-intuitive perhaps, a wet winter season in the Imperial and Coachella Valleys with lots of rain actually results in less water being diverted from the mainstream by entities like Coachella Valley Water District and the Imperial Irrigation, thus less agricultural drainage or canal spills ending up in district drainage systems and being discharged into the Salton Sea.
Regarding “Songbird’s” comment above–
“I’m interested to see how much the Salton Sea increases this season from a wet year.”
While somewhat counter-intuitive perhaps, a wet winter season in the Imperial and Coachella Valleys with lots of rain actually results in less water being diverted from the mainstream by entities like Coachella Valley Water District and the Imperial Irrigation District, thus less agricultural drainage or canal spills ending up in district drainage systems and being discharged into the Salton Sea.