State presents plan to community
With the purpose of further educating the public on the latest actions the state of California is taking to mitigate the impact of the declining Salton Sea, Bruce Wilcox who is leading the state’s Salton Sea Management Program, visited El Centro as part of a series of workshops being conducted in the communities near the sea.
Wilcox, who is the Assistant Secretary for Salton Sea Policy for the California Natural Resources Agency, gave the public a brief introduction to the 10-year plan which was unveiled in March.
The plan intends to build habitat and implement other dust suppression projects for about 30,000 acres of exposed shoreline in the next 10 years.
Wilcox mentioned during the presentation that he expects a third of the acreage the plan will deal with, will not utilize water. For the proposed habitat projects which will need water, Wilcox said the focus at the time is to start by building the backbone infrastructure which will help deliver water to the shallow water ponds that will be built on the shoreline of the sea.
“We think there will be a fair amount of playa that will have dry air quality projects,” he said. “One of the ones that intrigue us the most is the surface roughening project … one of the cheapest way to do it.”
A resident of Salton City asked whether the state was doing something to prevent the sea from shrinking even more. Wilcox told the man that the state doesn’t have such plans in place, although he recognizes the state’s efforts should’ve begun much earlier.
The current focus is to get the projects underway to cover the portions of the lakebed that are already exposed. He noted that identifying what the long-term solution will be, will come at a later time. He said that the water import proposal has a lot of challenges and pointed out he doesn’t know what the long-term plan will be at the time.
Laura Peters, an engineer for the Department of Water Resources currently working with Wilcox said that among the projects already identified, Species Conservation Habitat I and II will be among the first to begin construction since all the preliminary permits and design have been completed.
Also, those at the end of the Alamo River near the geothermal plants will be the last to get underway.
Although exposed playa is an issue throughout the perimeter of the sea, Wilcox said the northern and southern ends of the Salton Sea have become the priority because they have sources of water that can be diverted for the construction of the projects with the New River and Alamo River in the south and the Whitewater River in the north end.
Rudy Vargas, a field representative for Sen. Kamala Harris asked Wilcox what efforts the former California attorney general could do to help the Salton Sea. Wilcox suggested she work with the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture to assist them as much as possible and also to engage in talks with Sen. Dianne Feinstein who’s been a supporter of such efforts … to have a united voice.
During the opening comments of the workshop, Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia touched on the recent efforts made with Senator Ben Hueso to find ways to fund the 10year plan. Senate Bill 701, which was introduced by Hueso, would establish a $500 million bond to be approved by the voters by the end of next year.
“What we are focused on in California is a funding source that would holistically be implemented along with this 10-year plan,” Garcia said. “Our focus is that the state of California is able to be in a strong position to fund this 10-year plan which I know is on the minds of many people.”