CA Litium must include Salton Sea Communities

By Sylvia Pas, special for Calmatters

This comment was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

I grew up in the Salton Sea area in a mobile home community of farmers. Our angle of the unaccorpored urban softness did not have access to transport, grocery stores, health clinics, sidewalks, reliable electricity and sewer or water infrastructure.

For decades, the change is slow. Significant, sustainable funding will be needed to deal with heavy economic, health and environmental needs.

Salton Sea Commages are united However, more than our historical failure. Although we are artificially divided between Imperial and Riverside County, we have similar crops, ecosystems and economic engines such as agriculture and tourism. In many ways, the experiences and priorities of Salton Sea have more in common than each other than with the larger metropolitan regions appointed to us.

We need to find a way to overcome the economic regions that divide us based on the district lines. The creation of a stronger future for Salton SEA depends on our unity, especially when we are oriented at the uncertainty of the lithium industry and since the state is preparing to pay $ 10 billion from climate that the voters in California passed in November.

When they split between the Counts Imperial and Riverside, the votes of our community are drowned by the priorities of the more resource metropolitan areas. For areas consisting of neighborhoods and mobile residential parks, which are consistently ranked in the largest accommodation of the country, this deepens our competitive disadvantage and blocks us from access to resources that are so decisive to strengthen the basic infrastructure.

Our current experience with Lithium boom is a perfect example. The Salton Sea Communities will be the closest effect on the environment of lithium extraction. However, we have no guarantees or assurances that the main developers of economic benefits have long advertised and will also reach our communities.

Instead, we remain negotiations on the foundations, such as repairing roads and bridges to deal with more heavy industrial traffic. Each community must have functional pathways. We should not have to negotiate with the developers in order to fulfill this basic need, especially the one that supports their business and financial success.

The reason we do not have building blocks for a thriving economy – the reason we want the developers for the foundations – is directly bound by the economic regions where the state has put us, fragmenting the flow of public funding in our communities over the years.

Being recognized as a region would ensure a spark of hope and a way to overcome obstacles that impede access to resources. In 2024, the Salton Sea region gathered Ask the state To elevate our geographical area to a fully recognized economic region. While these initial efforts were ultimately governerLocal authorities and community leaders are exploring other ways to make our broken voices more strongly and overlap as one of what we all need.

Along with researchers at the University of South California, we are working to open areas of common interest between communities and local authorities. We are currently focused on the Counts Imperial and Riverside, as well as in the cities of Broley, Calipatry, El Centro, Westmore and Coachela.

Our research is already revealing promising opportunities for us to advocate together around shared goals. For example, each of these areas wants to prioritize the modernization of their water systems – which proves to be the main investment focus of the air conditioning bond.

Everywhere around Salton Sea, my neighbors and I am proud of our stories and cultures. We feel a deep connection with our neighborhoods and agree that stronger infrastructure, clean water and clean air are essential. We are determined to make progress in strengthening our collective voice in order to meet our shared needs, and we urgently hope that our partners in the state government will follow.

A united and recognized region of Salton Sea is the key to guaranteeing our communities to benefit from new climate investments and major industrial development. It is key to the realization of our potential, so this important area of ​​the future of California can really thrive.

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.