The California Legislature has passed and sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom a bill to create the Salton Sea Conservancy to lead multi-million-dollar efforts to restore the shrinking and increasingly toxic inland sea. The new conservancy would be the state’s 11th and the first established in over 15 years. The goal would be to protect residents’ health, foster ecological recovery of the area, and empower local stakeholders. … The Salton Sea formed in 1905 after overflow from the Colorado River spilled into a basin in the desert, creating the largest lake in California. Over the past several decades, evaporation exacerbated by droughts has reduced the sea, exposing a toxic lake bed.