The Salton Sea 10-year management plan is a waste of time, money and resources

The Native American Cahuilla Nation has lived in the valley and stewarded the land for over 8,000 years. The majority of Western Europeans settled here during the last 175 years and have managed to create the real potential of the worst environmental disaster in California history with two situations:

1) The Salton Sea is on the brink of collapse creating a health, environmental and economy disaster due to the residing playa exposing dangerous chemicals creating toxic fine particulate matter we breath when the wind blows. Fish and birds are dying off faster than ever before.

2) The lack of fresh water from the Colorado River (reductions since 2018) has already affected our ability to recharge our aquifer sufficiently to supplement natural run off from rain and snowmelt causing the ground to subside in several areas in our east valley.

Perhaps it would be better to develop less water-intensive developments. Recreation is certainly what were known for, but at what cost? Each golf course uses approximately 1,000-acre feet of water yearly (326,000,000 gallons of water).

Before the existence of the Salton Sea, the Colorado River created ancient Lake Cahuilla many times over thousands of years, making it the largest fresh water inland lake in California. Now the Salton Sea is on the brink of a health and environmental disaster that will impact all of Southern California. We are currently all affected by the some of the worst air quality in the nation.

The Desert Sun published an excellent front page article on Oct. 21, 2019, “Public emergency’ at the Salton Sea?”

Fast forward to today: This valley is home to some of the poorest and wealthiest people on earth.

Some make a living here laboring in the fields and others seek to enjoy one the most biologically diverse deserts on earth. We are a worldwide destination for people, seeking sun, health, golf, tennis, pickleball, swimming, ice skating, surfing, hiking and exploring nature at its best.

What are our priorities? A high-speed rail, more warehouses, more pollution? We all from the impact of our air quality, but those living in impoverished areas like Imperial County working the fields to deliver food on our table have to experience two to three times the respiratory problems of anywhere else in California.

Lithium Valley, electric cars, wind and solar farms are not the answer. There are other less expensive and more practical ways to mitigate climate change (which has naturally occurred since the earth was created about 4.5 billion years ago). The end of the ice age was approximately 10,000 years ago. We need to have a balance between renewable energies and fossil fuels to help mitigate climate change.

As for our water challenges, they will not get better as the population increases unless we use wise and prudent savings methods and develop ways to utilize the ocean water unless someone discovers how to make water.

Back to our priorities, if we want to continue to enjoy this valley’s treasures (and breath clean air), we need a permanent fix.

The Salton Sea 10-year mitigation plan is a waste of time, money and resources. Since the transfer of several hundred-thousand-acre feet of water to San Diego in 2018, the Salton Sea is receding at an unprecedented rate. The dry playa is loaded with dangerous chemicals and when the wind blows (often) the particulate matter in the valley continues to get worse.

I know there is no easy, quick or inexpensive fix, however, I know if we don’t do anything and pretend like this will go away, the end results will be far more costly and devastating to our health, environment and economy.

Check out UC Riverside’s resources, including “Sea Change” published in their magazine in 2019.

We need action and we need it now.

Kerry Berman lives in Palm Desert and is a certified interpretive guide, an I-naturalist, author of the new book “Enchanted Valley Palm Springs and Beyond” and a USMC disabled combat veteran. He can be reached at kerry@kerryberman.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: The Salton Sea 10-year management plan is a waste of time and money