By SARAH FRIEDMAN AND KYLE JONES / Sacramento Bee
In the mid-1940s, the Salton Sea was a hotbed of activity, attracting Hollywood’s most glamorous actors and musicians to its yacht clubs and campgrounds. Now, what was once the largest lake in California is disappearing before our eyes and endangering all its life.
We can still save it, but if we don’t, we will have a massive public health, environmental and economic crisis that could cost as much as $70 billion.
The Salton Sea is a lake that was created most recently 112 years ago after canals and dikes failed along the Colorado River, opening the Imperial Valley to extreme flooding. This engineering mistake is now home to millions of birds and fish. But over the past few years, we have seen lake levels drop.
So how is a lake, three times larger than Owens Lake, on the brink of collapse? An agricultural-to-urban water-transfer agreement between the Imperial Valley and urban San Diego and Coachella valleys is the main reason. This agreement contractually obligated the state to address the environmental impacts from the water transfer to the sea. But there has been little action over the past 10 years. Read More