The Obama administration unveiled initiatives to help restore the Salton Sea and improve the region’s climate resilience, economy and public health as part of President Barack Obama’s visit to Lake Tahoe on Wednesday.
Obama talked about the need to combat climate change as part of conservation efforts during his keynote speech at the sold-out 2016 Lake Tahoe Summit.
Before Obama arrived on the West Coast, the White House press office announced a package to aid the Salton Sea and plans to boost conservation at Lake Tahoe.
“We’re going to reverse the deterioration of the Salton Sea before it’s too late, and that’s going to help a lot of folks all across the West,” Obama told about 9,000 people at Harveys Outdoor Arena in Stateline, Nev., just across from South Lake Tahoe, Ca.
As part of that effort, Deputy U.S. Interior Secretary Michael Connor and California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird signed an agreement Wednesday to form a federal-state partnership to speed up conservation of the Salton Sea, California’s largest lake, with up to 25,000 acres of resource mitigation.
The Obama administration also committed to geothermal and renewable energy development in the region. Two projects in Nevada and Utah will get up to $29 million for geothermal energy research that could help the Salton Sea area.
The U.S. agriculture department pledged $17 million for air, water and wildlife habitat conservation planning at the Salton Sea and the Sierra Valley, where partners committed another $60 million.
Also Wednesday, the philanthropic Water Funder Initiative announced a goal to provide $10 million over five years to help implement a plan to improve the Salton Sea’s drought resilience, promote its restoration and renewable energy, and protect public health.
Gov. Jerry Brown previously earmarked $80.5 million in his 2016-2017 budget to restore habitat and suppress dust at the lake.
Salton Sea expert Mike Cohen of the Pacific Institute said he hopes the federal government will get projects launched because the state’s commitment hasn’t translated into actual projects on the ground yet.
“It’s a huge step forward that the federal government is committing to working with the state to support habitat and dust control projects at the Salton Sea,” Cohen said. “There’s been a lot of talk; there’s been a lot of goals. What we really need now is to see action.”
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Ca., said she’s pleased the state and interior department formed a partnership to restore the lake.
“The only way we will save the Salton Sea is with a broad coalition that includes every level of government and the private sector as well,” she said in a statement.
The 350-square-mile Salton Sea was created in 1905 by Colorado River flooding. Since then, the lake has been replenished by agricultural and municipal runoff and Colorado River water sent by the Imperial Irrigation District.
Agricultural crop changes, water recycling and drought since the late 1990s have shrunk the lake, exposed miles of shoreline and left uncovered sediment to blow across the Coachella and Imperial valleys.
The lake’s salinity has spiked, killing fish that had fed hundreds of thousands of resident and migratory birds.
Problems are expected to increase after 2017. The 1.1 million acre feet of water flowing into the lake this year, nearly all from crop runoff, will drop to about 900,000 acre feet when the Imperial Irrigation District sends supplemental river water to San Diego County instead.
Audubon Society President and CEO David Yarnold said the group hopes to see work begin on building bird habitat and protecting Southern Californians from unhealthy dust storms.
“We have a brief window to build on the momentum of this agreement, so now the hard work really starts,” he said.
A disaster created the inland sea, Mother Nature brought her to her knees. CAN WE SAVE THE SALTON SEA?