Crime, Salton Sea and ZGlobal top news list
The Imperial Valley had plenty of important news this past year. From commitment to mitigation at the Salton Sea, to murders, to sporting events, below are the top five news items we believe came out of the Imperial Valley in 2017. The articles were chosen by a combination of online views and importance to Valley issues. Murder-suicide case in El Centro
The murder-suicide initial and follow-up story in March regarding a 48-year-old man killing his 45-year-old partner, her 24-year-old daughter and a 5-yearold, were the top two stories that recorded the most online views on the ivpressonline.com website in 2017. Their names have been intentionally omitted.
Imperial Irrigation District, ZGlobal possible wrongdoing
Although no illegal activity has been found between the Imperial Irrigation District and its contract with ZGlobal, reporting that the two had possible conflicts of interest captured lots of interest.
Even the Imperial County District Attorney’s Office is currently investigating potential conflicts of interest regarding the bidding process for IID’s battery storage facility, which ZGlobal helped build.
In November, IID and ZGlobal mutually ended their $9.1 million contract, a year before it was set to expire.
Since then, the IID has started looking into all its contracts to avoid any potential conflicts of interest.
Ann Marie Zimmermann murder
The murder of attorney Ann Marie Zimmermann in February shocked the community.
Ioan Laurint is accused of murdering Zimmermann by stabbing her to death Feb. 17 at the Golden West Motel in El Centro.
Laurint was eventually arrested March 5 in connection with the murder.
The trial of Laurint is in the initial stages. All parties are due back in court Jan. 10 for another pre-trial hearing, during which time a trial date could be set.
Calexico first to say yes to cannabis cultivation
With the state to legalize recreational marijuana in 2018, the city of Calexico was the first municipality in the Imperial Valley to say yes to marijuana cultivation.
Trinity Farming & Manufacturing Inc. is the business that is leading a project in the city, the only project currently in the works in the Imperial Valley.
The proposed project will consist of five total buildings, one of which already exists, as well as the construction of three new buildings ranging in size from 39,000 to 48,000 square feet. A 10,000 square foot transportation building is also scheduled to be constructed.
An environmental impact report will examine the impact of the 8.23-acre project, located in the 2400 block of Enterprise Boulevard. Once completed, the report will go before the city’s planning commission and City Council for possible approval.
The EIR will assess the proposed project’s impact on noise, water, odor, air quality and transportation and traffic as part of, but not the entirety of, its scope of work.
The project is initially expected to provide about 20 to 25 high-paying jobs, a figure that is expected to eventually grow to more than 80 once all four proposed cultivation and manufacturing facilities are built.
Mitigation efforts at the Salton Sea
The mitigation efforts for the Salton Sea is the top story coming out of the Imperial Valley.
While the Salton Sea is not a topic that is talked about at most Imperial Valley dinner tables, it’s an issue that has several effects on the Valley and the health of its residents due to exposed playa on the lakebed.
At the start of the year, there was no plan, funding for that non-existing plan was a mystery and it seemed as different agencies had different priorities, however, as the year took its course some of the most important pieces began to fall in place.
In March, the California Natural Resources Agency, which has been tasked with carrying out the habitat and dust-suppression projects, released its 10-year plan as part of the Salton Sea Management Program that set a roadmap for the state to build dust suppression projects to cover nearly 30,000 acres of exposed lakebed by 2028.
While not everyone agreed with the timetable or scope of the plan, it gave the state and local partners a target to shoot for. The next important question became how the state would pay for the $383 million plan.
Later in the year two bills provided a possible answer: a $4 billion park bond introduced by Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia in the Assembly along with its Senate companion introduced by Senate leader Kevin De Leon that initially included up to $280 million for the Salton Sea, but through negotiations was later reduced to $190 million.
Prior to the passage of the bill, local and regional officials met with Gov. Brown in Sacramento in August to urge him to support the bill to ensure the Salton Sea Management Program was funded during the foreseeable future.
The bill narrowly passed both legislative houses with no votes to spare in the final day of session in September and was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown a month later. The bond will now go to the voters on the June ballot to approve the full $4.1 billion that will cover most of the monies needed under the 10-year plan.
But perhaps the most significant action pertaining to the Salton Sea was the approval of the Stipulated Order in early November.
The approval of the stipulated order was a significant step forward as the current mitigation water the Salton Sea gets every year will cease at the end of the year, with the decrease of inflow, the lake is expected to shrink at a faster rate leaving more playa with toxic dust exposed.
The order is an amendment to the water order the California State Water Resources Control Board issued Oct. 28, 2002, which approved the long-term transfer of water from the Imperial Irrigation District to San Diego County Water Authority, Coachella Valley Water District and Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
The draft stipulated order sets the same 29,800 acres of exposed lakebed to be covered by 2029 as noted in the 10year plan released in March, but it also sets yearly objectives starting with 500 acres by Jan. 1, 2019, and rises incrementally to 4,000 acres or more to be covered in the final three years.
In addition to the milestones, the Natural Resources Agency will have to give the water board an annual report on the progress of management programs and whether the state is up to speed with the annual milestones.
The order will allow the SWRCB to have jurisdiction over the efforts and the power to direct the agency to come up with an alternative plan if the state falls behind more than 20 percent of the goal any given year.