Southern California’s Salton Sea—approximately 232 feet (70 m)
below sea level— is one of the world’s largest inland seas. It
has 130 miles of shoreline and is larger than Lake Tahoe.
The sea was created in 1905 when the Colorado River broke through
a series of dikes, flooding a salty basin known as the Salton
Sink in the Imperial Valley. The sea is an important stopping
point for 1 million migratory waterfowl, and serves as critical
habitat for birds moving south to Mexico and Central America.
Overall, the Salton Sea harbors more than 270 species of birds
including ducks, geese, cormorants and pelicans.
A new science brief published today by Audubon California shows
that a number of factors have surprisingly resulted in an
increase in wetland habitat, and that an increasing number of
shorebirds are taking advantage of the changes—driving a growth
rate of 15 percent per year in waterbirds overall. This new
development comes as the Sea continues to witness the shrinkage
of deep-water habitats and fish-eating bird
populations. This finding and others are drawn from seven
years of Audubon’s bird surveys and habitat assessments at the
Salton Sea. … The science brief, which summarizes a
more comprehensive scientific study currently under peer review
in a scientific journal, points to significant shifts in
habitats, food availability, and bird populations. Newly formed
vegetated wetlands, for example, increased from 5,944 acres in
2019 to 7,312 acres in 2022, or by 23 percent.
A newly published study finds that California’s Salton Sea
emits hydrogen sulfide, a toxic and foul-smelling
gas, at rates that regularly exceed the state’s air
quality standards. The presence of these emissions in
communities surrounding the Salton Sea are “vastly
underestimated” by government air-quality monitoring systems,
the researchers found. The study, published in the
journal GeoHealth, underscores the risk posed by
hydrogen-sulfide emissions to communities already burdened by
other environmental and socioeconomic stressors, the
researchers say. … The study found that between 2013 and
2024, SCAQMD (South Coast Air Quality Management District)
sensors in the communities of Indio, Mecca and the Torres
Martinez Indian Reservation frequently showed hydrogen sulfide
readings exceeding State of California standards.
Water began flowing from a pipe onto hundreds of acres of dry,
sunbaked lake bed as California officials filled a complex of
shallow ponds near the south shore of the Salton Sea in an
effort to create wetlands that will provide habitat for fish
and birds, and help control lung-damaging dust around the
shrinking lake. The project represents the state’s largest
effort to date to address the environmental problems plaguing
the Salton Sea, which has been steadily retreating and leaving
growing stretches of dusty lake bottom exposed to the desert
winds. … The habitat area in Imperial County is being
filled with water after an adjacent area called East Pond
received its first water in April. In the coming weeks, state
officials said the flooding of these sections will bring to
fruition the first 2,000 acres of the Species Conservation
Habitat Project, a central effort in California’s plan for
improving conditions at the state’s largest lake.
The California Salton Sea Management Program celebrated a major
milestone Thursday with the filling of the Species Conservation
Habitat (SCH) Project’s East Pond Expansion, located at the
southern end of the Salton Sea. … This expansion adds
essential habitat for birds and fish while contributing to dust
suppression in surrounding communities. Since early April,
water has been flowing into the original East Pond. Now, the
adjacent East Pond Expansion brings the total restored habitat
to approximately 2,010 acres. With the completion of this
phase, the SCH project’s footprint now reaches nearly 5,000
acres. Plans are underway to expand even further—adding another
4,500 acres through the development of Center and West Ponds,
currently in the design phase. Once completed, the SCH will
encompass over 9,000 acres.
For the first time, water is flowing into the Species
Conservation Habitat Project at California’s beleaguered Salton
Sea—creating vital refuge for shorebirds and bringing
much-needed relief from airborne dust in nearby communities.
… The state-run Salton Sea Management Program announced the
water flows into the project’s east pond in early May. The
inflow is a mix of water from the Salton Sea and the New River.
This is the first step in the watering of the project. Toward
the end of the month, state officials expect to begin watering
the East Pond 1 Expansion Pond. Together, these ponds will
provide about 2,000 acres of new habitat for migrating
shorebirds, waterfowl and other waterbirds. … The
flooding will substantially reduce acreage of playa, exposed
lakebed that that can send clouds of windborne dust blowing
into nearby communities.
Volunteers planted 1,000 native plants at the Shank Alamo
Wetlands east of Brawley during Community Climate Action Day on
Saturday, May 17. According to event organizers, the native
species will improve water quality, prevent erosion, and treat
drainage water flowing into the Alamo River and eventually the
Salton Sea. A coalition of state and national
groups supported the event, including the Imperial Irrigation
District, Keep California Beautiful, and the California Climate
Action Corps. Robert Schettler, public information officer for
the IID, said Boy Scouts, high school students, and local
families volunteered to help get the plants in the ground. He
said the turnout was larger than expected, with nearly 80
volunteers digging holes and planting 800 bulrushes and 200
cattails. The starter plants will grow over time and clean the
water as it passes through the channels, Schettler said. “When
you provide the Salton Sea with cleaner water, of course it’s
better,” he said.
The Salton Sea is a haven for wildlife, a repository of
critical minerals and the site of some of the worst
environmental and economic conditions in California. The
contrast between its natural riches and its impoverished
population has sharpened as companies seek to mine vast
deposits of lithium, a mineral used to make batteries for
electric cars, computers and cellphones. “Today, the Salton Sea
region stands at a critical juncture with a chance to become a
major domestic supplier of lithium,” state Sen. Steve Padilla,
who represents parts of Riverside, Imperial and San Diego
counties, recently told the Senate Committee on Business,
Professions and Economic Development. The Chula Vista Democrat
wants to give the region a bigger say in how it grows amid the
projected lithium boom. His bill, SB 534, would create a “green
empowerment zone” around the sea that would govern how to use
public money, invest in local communities and support the
transition to a renewable energy economy.
California State Sen. Steve Padilla urged community members and
stakeholders to set aside “petty historic differences” during
his keynote speech at the Imperial Valley Salton Sea
Conference, held Friday, May 9, at Imperial Valley College. The
event, co-hosted by Los Amigos de Comunidad Inc., Imperial
Valley College, and the Pacific Institute, marked the first
major conference focusing on the Salton Sea from an Imperial
Valley perspective. The conference brought together regional
leaders, environmental advocates, scientists and state
officials to discuss both the challenges and opportunities
presented by the deteriorating lake. Padilla’s call for unity
came as he reflected on decades of political and community
division that he said have stalled meaningful progress for the
Salton Sea and surrounding communities.
California’s largest reservoir, Lake Shasta, reached
capacity this week, marking the third straight year it has
filled or nearly filled with water. The run of big water years
at the reservoir reflects the unusual string of wet winters the
state has experienced, and it bodes well for water supplies
this year across California. The lake, which stretches
across an extraordinary 35 miles in the southern Cascades north
of Redding near Mount Shasta, is the cornerstone of the
federally run Central Valley Project. Its supplies are sent to
cities and farms hundreds of miles away, including the Bay
Area. The San Joaquin Valley’s booming agricultural industry is
the primary beneficiary.
This month, a key milestone was reached as water began flowing
into the East Pond of the Species Conservation Habitat (SCH)
Project—the largest restoration initiative at the Salton Sea. A
mixture of water from the New River and the Salton Sea is now
filling the first pond, with the East Pond 1 expansion Pond
expected to follow by the end of May. Together, the two ponds
will support roughly 2,000 acres of habitat-roughly three
square miles, the California Natural Resources Agency said.
Launched in 2021, the SHC Project has expanded to nearly 5,000
acres at the Sea’s southern end, with future plans to grow the
footprint to more than 9,000 acres. The restoration efforts are
designed to rebuild critical wetland habitats and reduce
harmful dust exposure for surrounding communities.
… The Salton Sea’s eastern shore is home to hundreds of mud
pots, though only this one—known as the “Niland Geyser,”
“moving mud spring,” and “Mundo”— moves. Scientists can’t
figure out why: Some think that a series of earthquakes made
the bedrock more permeable and allowed the mud to seep through.
But there’s no conclusive link. The region’s unique geology
certainly plays a role: a highly faulted area with thick
sediment that drains from the Grand Canyon through the Colorado
River. A number of forces—tectonic activity, the accumulation
of gases, the heat of young magma—conspire to force this
sediment upward, resulting in puddles that spit and gargle like
a witch’s brew. … Seemingly out of nowhere, the muck
started moving southwest at a quick clip, at least as far as
puddles go, digging a crater of slurry sediment and water 75
feet wide and 25 feet deep.
… Formed in 1993, the Salton Sea Authority serves as a
central hub where local leaders, agencies, and community
members bring ideas for projects like trail systems and
community-centric developments. The Authority plays a crucial
role in aligning these ideas with the overarching restoration
plan. In an interview with NBC Palm Springs, the Authority’s
CEO discussed a significant new initiative: a $22.3 million
comprehensive feasibility study. The study will help develop a
realistic, achievable ecosystem restoration plan for the entire
Salton Sea, based on available resources. “Recently, we signed
an agreement to implement a longer-term feasibility study,” the
CEO explained. “It will effectively develop a feasible and
achievable ecosystem restoration plan for the entire sea based
on the resources that are available.”
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hilton Garden Inn Las Vegas Strip South
7830 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89123
Learn the history and challenges facing the West’s most dramatic
and developed river.
The Layperson’s Guide to the Colorado River Basin introduces the
1,450-mile river that sustains 40 million people and millions of
acres of farmland spanning seven states and parts of northern
Mexico.
The 28-page primer explains how the river’s water is shared and
managed as the Southwest transitions to a hotter and drier
climate.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hilton Garden Inn Las Vegas Strip South
7830 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89123
This special Foundation water tour journeyed along the Eastern Sierra from the Truckee River to Mono Lake, through the Owens Valley and into the Mojave Desert to explore a major source of water for Southern California, this year’s snowpack and challenges for towns, farms and the environment.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
The lower Colorado River has virtually every drop allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
For more than 20 years, Tanya
Trujillo has been immersed in the many challenges of the Colorado
River, the drought-stressed lifeline for 40 million people from
Denver to Los Angeles and the source of irrigation water for more
than 5 million acres of winter lettuce, supermarket melons and
other crops.
Trujillo has experience working in both the Upper and Lower
Basins of the Colorado River, basins that split the river’s water
evenly but are sometimes at odds with each other. She was a
lawyer for the state of New Mexico, one of four states in the
Upper Colorado River Basin, when key operating guidelines for
sharing shortages on the river were negotiated in 2007. She later
worked as executive director for the Colorado River Board of
California, exposing her to the different perspectives and
challenges facing California and the other states in the river’s
Lower Basin.
State work to improve wildlife habitat and tamp down dust at California’s ailing Salton Sea is finally moving forward. Now the sea may be on the verge of getting the vital ingredient needed to supercharge those restoration efforts – money.
The shrinking desert lake has long been a trouble spot beset by rising salinity and unhealthy, lung-irritating dust blowing from its increasingly exposed bed. It shadows discussions of how to address the Colorado River’s two-decade-long drought because of its connection to the system. The lake is a festering health hazard to nearby residents, many of them impoverished, who struggle with elevated asthma risk as dust rises from the sea’s receding shoreline.
Out of sight and out of mind to most
people, the Salton Sea in California’s far southeast corner has
challenged policymakers and local agencies alike to save the
desert lake from becoming a fetid, hyper-saline water body
inhospitable to wildlife and surrounded by clouds of choking
dust.
The sea’s problems stretch beyond its boundaries in Imperial and
Riverside counties and threaten to undermine multistate
management of the Colorado River. A 2019 Drought Contingency Plan for the
Lower Colorado River Basin was briefly stalled when the Imperial
Irrigation District, holding the river’s largest water
allocation, balked at participating in the plan because, the
district said, it ignored the problems of the Salton Sea.
This event explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Even as stakeholders in the Colorado River Basin celebrate the recent completion of an unprecedented drought plan intended to stave off a crashing Lake Mead, there is little time to rest. An even larger hurdle lies ahead as they prepare to hammer out the next set of rules that could vastly reshape the river’s future.
Set to expire in 2026, the current guidelines for water deliveries and shortage sharing, launched in 2007 amid a multiyear drought, were designed to prevent disputes that could provoke conflict.
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
For the bulk of her career, Jayne
Harkins has devoted her energy to issues associated with the
management of the Colorado River, both with the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and with the Colorado River Commission of Nevada.
Now her career is taking a different direction. Harkins, 58, was
appointed by President Trump last August to take the helm of the
United States section of the U.S.-Mexico agency that oversees
myriad water matters between the two countries as they seek to
sustainably manage the supply and water quality of the Colorado
River, including its once-thriving Delta in Mexico, and other
rivers the two countries share. She is the first woman to be
named the U.S. Commissioner of the International Boundary and
Water Commission for either the United States or Mexico in the
commission’s 129-year history.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs is the focus of this tour.
Silverton Hotel
3333 Blue Diamond Road
Las Vegas, NV 89139
There’s going to be a new governor
in California next year – and a host of challenges both old and
new involving the state’s most vital natural resource, water.
So what should be the next governor’s water priorities?
That was one of the questions put to more than 150 participants
during a wrap-up session at the end of the Water Education
Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento.
We explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop
of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad
sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and
climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs was the focus of this tour.
Hampton Inn Tropicana
4975 Dean Martin Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89118
California voters may experience a sense of déjà vu this year when they are asked twice in the same year to consider water bonds — one in June, the other headed to the November ballot.
Both tackle a variety of water issues, from helping disadvantaged communities get clean drinking water to making flood management improvements. But they avoid more controversial proposals, such as new surface storage, and they propose to do some very different things to appeal to different constituencies.
Tickets are now on sale for the Water Education Foundation’s April 11-13 tour of the Lower Colorado River.
Don’t miss this opportunity to visit key sites along one of the nation’s most famous rivers, including a private tour of Hoover Dam, Central Arizona Project’s Mark Wilmer pumping plant and the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge. The tour also visits the Salton Sea, Slab City, the All-American Canal and farming regions in the Imperial and Coachella valleys.
This issue of Western Water discusses the challenges
facing the Colorado River Basin resulting from persistent
drought, climate change and an overallocated river, and how water
managers and others are trying to face the future.
This three-day, two-night tour explored the lower Colorado River
where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand
is growing from myriad sources — increasing population,
declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs is the focus of this tour.
Best Western McCarran Inn
4970 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89119
Scientifically and legislatively, lakes are indistinguishable
from
ponds, but lakes generally are considered to be longer and
deeper lentic, or still, waters. In the 18th and
19th centuries, scientists attempted to distinguish
the two more formally, stating that ponds were shallow enough to
allow sunlight to penetrate to the bottom, but this exists
today as an unofficial point.
Fearing an imminent public health threat, the director of the
University of California, Irvine’s Salton Sea Initiative said the
State Water Resources Control Board should step in and regulate
the rate of water transferred from the Imperial Valley to coastal
California as part of the Quantification Settlement Agreement.
The shallow, briny inland lake at the southeastern edge of
California is slowly evaporating and becoming more saline –
threatening the habitat for fish and birds and worsening air
quality as dust from the dry lakebed is whipped by the constant
winds.
(Read this excerpt from the May/June 2015 issue along with
the editor’s note. Click here to
subscribe to Western Water and get full access.)
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
A new look for our most popular product! And it’s the perfect
gift for the water wonk in your life.
Our 24×36-inch California Water Map is widely known for being the
definitive poster that shows the integral role water plays in the
state. On this updated version, it is easier to see California’s
natural waterways and man-made reservoirs and aqueducts
– including federally, state and locally funded
projects – the wild and scenic rivers system, and
natural lakes. The map features beautiful photos of
California’s natural environment, rivers, water projects,
wildlife, and urban and agricultural uses and the
text focuses on key issues: water supply, water use, water
projects, the Delta, wild and scenic rivers and the Colorado
River.
As part of the historic Colorado
River Delta, the Salton Sea regularly filled and dried for
thousands of years due to its elevation of 237 feet below
sea level.
The most recent version of the Salton Sea was formed in 1905 when
the Colorado River broke
through a series of dikes and flooded the seabed for two years,
creating California’s largest inland body of water. The
Salton Sea, which is saltier than the Pacific Ocean, includes 130
miles of shoreline and is larger than Lake Tahoe.
The Pacific Flyway is one of four
major North American migration routes for birds, especially
waterbirds, and stretches from Alaska in the north
to Patagonia in South America.
Each year, birds follow ancestral patterns as they travel the
flyway on their annual north-south migration. Along the way, they
need stopover sites such as wetlands with suitable habitat and
food supplies. In California, 95 percent of historic
wetlands have been lost, yet the Central Valley hosts some of the
world’s largest populations of wintering birds.
The Imperial Valley in the
southeastern corner of California receives the Colorado River
Basin’s single-largest share of water to support much of the
nation’s fruit and vegetable supply and hay for the
cattle and dairy industries.
Water from the Colorado River transformed the sagebrush and
desert sands of the Imperial, Coachella and Palo Verde valleys
into lush, green agricultural fields. The growing season is
year-round, the water plentiful and the local economies are based
almost entirely on farming. As the waters of the Colorado River
allowed the deserts to bloom, they allowed southern California
cities like Los Angeles and San Diego to boom. Suburbs, jobs and
people followed, and the population within the six counties
served by Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
(MWD) grew from 2.8 million in 1930 to more than 17 million
today.
