Will COVID kill the sea? O cials say no
SALTON SEA – To borrow from an old saying, $19.25 million is better than a poke in the eye. Everyone seems to agree on that much.
Still, it’s not $220 million.
The $19.25 million is the amount allocated in the 2020-21 state budget to the Salton Sea Management Plan. Specifically, the money will come from Proposition 68 funds and be earmarked for the management plan’s North Lake Project. Gov. Gavin Newsom approved that budget, which also includes $28 million for the New River, on June 29.
The $220 million was the amount tentatively earmarked for Salton
Sea remediation in the governor’s preliminary budget plan, issued in January. Under that plan, November’s state ballot would have included a $4.75 billion climate resilience bond containing $220 million to support Salton Sea habitat and air quality mitigation projects within the Salton Sea Management Plan.
However, the intervening months since January have seen the state’s economy flipped on its ear, resulting in much belt-tightening in budget projections. What’s more, that $220 million was no sure thing even under normal circumstances. State voters previously were presented a similar opportunity to approve funding for the Salton Sea in November 2018, and they said no.
Which brings to mind a couple of other old sayings. One is, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. The other: Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
These proverbs generally summed up the local official reactions when Newsom signed the 2020-21 budget.
“The County of Imperial has worked tirelessly to campaign for resources from the State of California and other agencies to address the challenges of the New River and Salton Sea,” wrote county Chairman of the Board and District 2 Supervisor, Luis A. Plancarte. “Our efforts are seeing rewards with Governor Newsom’s approval of the state budget that includes funding for projects in both the New River and Salton Sea. These additional resources will provide the tools we need to protect the health and safety of our residents and visitors in Imperial County.”
IID was similarly grateful. “IID has been a strong advocate for continued funding to help address the challenges posed by the New River and the Salton Sea,” said Imperial Irrigation District Board President Norma Sierra Galindo. “We are very pleased to learn the Governor’s budget, signed yesterday, includes new funds for projects in the amounts of $28 million for the New River and $19.3 for the Salton Sea.
We appreciate the Governor’s commitment to uphold California’s obligation to these projects and in doing so, helping improve the quality of life in our local community.”
“Five years ago, we made this our mission, and now with the Governor’s signature, we have secured over $47 million for New River and Salton Sea mitigation projects,” said Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia. “Protecting these critical local environmental and public health priorities from cuts during these difficult times is a major victory for our district. More than ever, we must advance projects that safeguard public health, improve environmental conditions, and bring economic relief to our most vulnerable areas.”
However, less than two years ago, IID conditioned its involvement in the seven-state Colorado River drought contingency plan on the promise of $200 million in state or federal funding for the Salton Sea. The gambit failed, and the DCP passed over the district’s objections and without its participation.
In October 2019, the Imperial County Board of Supervisors proclaimed a local emergency over air pollution at the Salton Sea. “As harmful dust is exposed at the Salton Sea, dangerous air pollution, including PM10 and PM25, is emitted into the air causing extreme conditions to the environment,” County CEO Tony Rouhotas Jr. said in a letter to the governor at the time. “Imperial County officials have determined these conditions are beyond the control of our services, personnel, equipment and facilities.”
As recently as June
23, the Imperial County Air Pollution Control District issued Notices of Violation to IID and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failure to implement adequate dust control measures at the Salton Sea Red Hills Bay Project. In a public statement in response to the notices, IID acknowledged it also was “frustrated by the lack of progress” at the Salton Sea.
Does $19.25 million change that, or does it represent a consolation prize? More importantly, will the economic pressures brought to bear as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic impair progress and investment in the Salton Sea to such an extent that the clock will run out before it can be saved?
Luis Olmedo, executive director of the environmental advocacy group Comite Civico del Valle, doesn’t think so. “We are far from being forgotten or unrepresented,” he said. “It may seem we are not moving fast enough because we are carrying a deficit of inactions over the last two decades. Not all is measured on projects on the ground. We are moving at lightning speed in comparison to the past two administrations.”
Olmedo praised the leadership of Assemblymember Garcia in drawing attention to the sea and other issues.
He also noted the state budget not only included the $47 million for the Salton Sea and the New River, it also contained $50 million in AB617 funds to the county Air Pollution Control District for implementation of Community Air Protection Program.
“We are in good standing,” Olmeda said. “These dollars surviving COVID-19 is an indication the Legislature and Gov. Newsom are not backing down from addressing the many inequities COVID-19 is exposing, and they recognize the infectious conditions such as the New River and Salton Sea, which must also be addressed in this war against COVID.”
Rebecca Terrazas-Baxter, Imperial County’s intergovernmental relations director, expressed a similar view. “Although, the funding that was proposed in the governor’s original budget proposal that was released in January reduced to a smaller amount,” she said, “it is promising and demonstrative that the Salton Sea is a priority of the governor’s since a portion of funding remained in the governor’s revision and final budget that the Legislature approved, even after all of the other proposed cuts that were on the table due to the budget impacts from COVID-19.”
She said Salton Sea remains one of the county’s biggest issues of concern and legislative priorities. She noted the County of Imperial and IID recently sent a joint letter to the chairs of the House Natural Resources Committee and House Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife requesting that the committee move forward with a congressional hearing on the multiple challenges and opportunities that exist at the Salton Sea.
“We understand we are in unprecedented times,” said the June 8 letter, which was signed by county CEO Rouhotas and IID General Manager Henry Martinez, “nonetheless, communities near the Sea will be even more vulnerable if restoration projects are not prioritized.”
“Imperial County will continue to strongly advocate for state and federal resources and assistance to address the receding shoreline and impending health and environmental impacts of the shrinking Salton Sea,” Terrazas-Baxter said.
Allowing the Salton
Sea to die is not an option, said IID spokesman Robert Schettler. “Despite what the overall financial situation may be at the moment, we’re not going to quit. … It’s just way too important,” he said. “Secondly, given all that was cut from the state’s budget, the fact that there IS money in the budget for the sea is important. It is good news.”