Can the conservation save the most perverted lake in California?

Haze hung over the sea in Salton on a recent winter day, while black stilts and kelder moved in the shallows, pecking on the crustaceans.

Something else appeared in a few steps closer to the lake: a weak, rotten egg that was carried from the water.

Salton Sea is almost twice as saline as the oceanLoaded with agricultural runoff and susceptible to flowering algae that eject hydrogen sulfide, harmful gas. This is also a refuge for more than 400 species of birds And a key stop on the Pacific Road, one of the main bird migration routes in North America.

Civil servants have fought with the deteriorating condition of the sea, as its water becomes firm and its imprint shrinks, exposing a toxic dust that walks through the region.

This year, the state has taken a step towards a decision, creating a new conservation of Salton Sea and distinguishing nearly half a billion dollars to revive the deteriorating water body. Although funds will help to restore local vegetation and improve water quality, some community organizers believe that it will ultimately take tens of billions of dollars to save the sea. And the conservation itself cannot cope with the impact of its pollution on human health, including increased asthma rates among loved ones.

“Salton Sea is one of the most common crises for environmental health in California,” said State Senator Steve PadilaDemocrat from Chula Vista, who is the author of A bill to create conservation Last year. “This is public health and an environmental disaster … The conservation of Salton Sea will provide perseverance in our investments for cleaning and recovery.”

The California climate bond, which the voters passed in November, brings out $ 170 million to restore Salton Sea, including $ 10 million to establish conservation. The State Fund to reduce greenhouse gases is also allocating $ 60 million, and the Federal Reclamation Office contributes to another $ 250 million, Padila said.

Governor Gavin Newo, legislative power, local water areas, tribal governments and non -profit organizations are expected to appoint 15 members of the conservation by January 1.

The new conservation will manage land and water rights and will control the restoration works written in the Salton Sea Management Program for 2018, a 10-year plan to build 30,000 acres of habitat and wilderness suppression projects.

“Conservation is necessary to ensure that it is completed, but also for constant maintenance and management of this restoration,” Padila said. “This is not the type in which you check the box, one and done.”

With a length of 35 miles and a width of 15 miles, the Salton Sea is the largest lake in California. Its last incarnation, formed in 1905, when the Colorado River violated the irrigation canal and millions of gallons freshwater flooded the pool, Setting up an internal lake This covers the Coachela and the imperial valleys.

But it wasn’t really his beginning. Although Salton Sea has a reputation of an agricultural incident, it has filled and has been naturally exhausted over the last few millennia.

The ancient versions of what was called Lake Kahuila appeared every few hundred years of prehistoric times. In their older more, the indigenous Americans place fish traps along the coastline. It was recently filled in 1731, a Hydrology Study at San Diego State University found. This natural story demonstrates its value for the region, the supporters say.

“We have to treat the sea in Salton as an important ecosystem for our environment in which we live,” said Louis Olmedo, CEO of Comite Civico del Valle, a Community organization based on Brawley.

During his prime in the 1960s, the Salt Lake is Water playground for celebrities per package of ratsIncluding Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. At the end of the last century, its salinity increases and the water quality immersed, leading to a mass Died of fish and birdsIncluding endangered brown pelicans.

Region suffers from breathing problems, As a dust from the lake, it rotates through the neighboring communities. Last year a study of California University They found nearly a quarter of children living near the asthma of Salton Marine, about three to five times the bigger than the national average.

Flourishing hot spot for birds

Despite its pollution, the sea still provides a key habitat of the wild. The number of Audubon birds in August 2023 gave a record 250,000 coastal birds that are seen in a day, said Camila Bautista, Salton Sea and Manager of the Deserts Program with Audubon California. Even when the contaminated water of the sea and the dying fishing make less hospitable birds eating fishing, such as pelicans, breeding birds, such as snow swimmers, spread over the expanding coastline.

“Salton Sea is still a thriving hot point for birds and these restoration projects are important to make sure this is still the case,” Bautista said.

California sea management programs in Salton 18 Restoration ProjectsIncluding some key efforts that are already underway. These include massive water restoration projects as well as restoration efforts, said the Deputy Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency Samantha Artur, who runs the management program.

At the southern end of the sea, the country’s habitat project for the protection of species added nearly 5,000 acres of lakes, pools and other functions of water, according to the tracking projects of the Management Program. The images of the site look like a science fiction Waterworld, where the Earth-driven equipment converts the coastline into a network of 10-foot deep pools.

Workers will mix highly physiological water from the sea with fresh water from their main tributary – the new river to reach a targeted salinity of 20 to 40 parts per thousand, Arthur said. At this level, water can maintain the local desert cuz, along with a tilapia, imported fish, which is adapted to salt water and once thrives in the sea.

“We design a targeted salinity to keep the fish and then attract the birds,” she said.

Covering the open soil with water must also improve the air quality by suppressing the dust, Arthur said. This project started in 2020 and is scheduled for completion this year.

The expansion of the habitat for the protection of species would add another 14,900 acres of water habitat for birds eating fish with “nesting and bread islands” and ponds with various depths. It is expected to be completed in 2027.

The management plan also includes planting local vegetation around the coastline or promoting the plants already there.

“We see 8,000 acres of wetlands that naturally appeared along the edge of the sea,” Arthur said. “The thing that is great about this is that it provides a continuing habitat for bird species.”

The state helps this by planting local vegetation on the west side of the sea to create a habitat and cut dust.

Creating Nature -based solutions

Bombay Beach is a craft neighborhood on the east side of Salton Sea, full of rusty trailers, abandoned cars and pop -ups.

This is also the place of a restoration project led by Audubon California, which will add 564 acres of wetlands by 2028. It will create coastlines to allow the water to unite naturally, forming shallow ponds that attract waterfowl and shores, Bautista said.

“The message of this project is to do this as much as possible, and to work with nature-based solutions so that we do not do it not super engineering,” Bautista said.

These projects form the first phases of more effort to recover, Arthur said.

As civil servants and non -profit partners cut the wetlands and plant vegetation, the Army Corps of Engineers studies long -term solutions for the Salton Sea.

Olmedo believes that the half -billion dollars are now only a small part of what is ultimately needed to save the sea.

“Everything is worth more and it is not unreasonable to think that we have a $ 60 billion responsibility,” he said. “I want to see billions of dollars invested in infrastructure.”

Sylvia Pas, CEO of Coachel -based Allianna Coachela Valley, said conservation focused mainly on habitat restoration, but the risk to human health of his pollution still need attention. She wants to see more public health studies and services as part of the long -term Salton Sea plans.

“This is a big profit that we are established conservation,” she said. “With regard to addressing the overall impact on health, the environment and the economy, conservation is not intended for it and we still have a way to figure out how to deal with it.”