County approves more than $400,000 for clean air projects
EL CENTRO — The County Air Pollution Control District will invest more than $400,000 in six different projects as part of efforts to decrease emissions of greenhouse gases and particulate matter.
The projects that were approved by the Board of Supervisors, acting as the Air Pollution Control Board, consist of a new and more efficient mower for Holtville Unified School District, a special needs bus for Magnolia Elementary School and two water trucks for the County Public Works Department.
Also approved were two grants for the cities of Brawley and El Centro to pave widely used parking lots.
The funding of these projects comes out of the ICACPD’s Rule 310 Operational Development Fee, which was put in place in 2007 to assist the district to mitigate the air-quality impact produced from the operation of new commercial and residential developments.
For the city of Brawley, the project in question is the second phase of the project to pave Volunteer Park, which will be covered by an $86,000 grant. Brawley councilman Sam Couchman told the board the park is heavily used for soccer, Little League and football games that take place in its vicinity.
“We do have a lot of dust created when we have the games. There a lot of people who attend, and we have a residential area nearby that is impacted by the dust,” Couchman said.
The city of El Centro will use the $54,500 grant it will receive to finish paving of the parking lot at Swarthout Park in the west end of the city.
El Centro Councilman Alex Cardenas said funds from a previous grant had run out, and the city would have needed to tap into its general fund to finish the project if it weren’t able to secure additional monies.
Air Pollution Control Officer Matt Dessert said it is hoped recent changes to streamline the process result in the projects getting done quicker.
“We do encourage both cities to move forward in an expeditious manner to get these projects finished,” he said. Water bond
Also on Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors listened to a presentation made by the Gerald Meral on the effort he is leading regarding the $8.8 billion water bond slated to appear on the November ballot that includes $200 million for the Salton Sea.
Meral previously made a similar presentation to the Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors in January, and just last week, IID officially endorsed the bond measure.
The water bond initiative focuses on water infrastructure and investments needed across the state. It is a different proposal than the $4.1 billion park bond approved by the Legislature last fall, which would also secure $200 million for the Salton Sea.
Last year, the California Natural Resources Agency unveiled a 10-year plan to manage the Salton Sea and mitigate the health impacts caused by exposed dust coming from the shoreline by building shallow ponds for habitat and other dust-suppression projects to cover nearly 30,000 acres.
The price tag to achieve that goal is $383 million, yet only $80 million in funding has been received to date.
If both bonds are approved by voters, the entire Salton Sea management program would be funded.
An additional goal of the proposed bond is to increase funding for safe drinking water. It sets aside $500 million for that purpose.
The other funding categories include watershed restoration, fish and waterfowl habitat, wastewater for disadvantaged communities, urban water conservation, agricultural water conservation, wastewater recycling, desalinization, flood management, Oroville Dam repair and storm water.
The proposal was well received, and county staff were instructed to bring the proposal back before the board in a future meeting for the purpose of putting endorsement to a vote.