Salton Sea Army Corps Study Could Generate Billions For Restoration
The US Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to review short- and long-term options for restoring the Salton Sea, which could ultimately generate billions for major public works to restore the body of water’s collapsed ecosystem. california big.
First, the federal agency will complete, by March 1 of next year, streamlined federal environmental reviews of projects that are part of the state’s 10-year Salton Sea Management Program plan that is supposed to be completed by 2028, including some that are underway. . They include nearly 29,000 acres of interconnected pond and wetland habitat projects, native vegetation and dust suppression projects, and fill of old boat channels in Desert Shores.
Separately, top brass from the Army Corps’ Pacific and Los Angeles area divisions signed a cost-share agreement Friday with jubilant state and regional officials for a three-year, $3 million feasibility study to determine which of With more than a dozen potential large-scale projects, engineering solutions for the Salton Sea are feasible.
Once that study is done, it could yield dramatically different results than numerous previous multi-agency reports spanning nearly 20 years, because 65% of the costs to build any project the Corps selects could be covered by federal funds.
“This is an opportunity to develop viable and innovative solutions, in collaboration with our partners, for the Salton Sea community,” said Col. Julie Balten, commander of the Corps’ Los Angeles District. “We are excited to sign the agreement as it solidifies our commitment to this community and its people to gather information, define problems and opportunities, and potentially recommend federal restoration projects in the Salton Sea.”
“This study will help chart a path toward the long-term restoration of the Salton Sea,” said Wade Crowfoot, California Secretary of Natural Resources. “It will identify projects to improve conditions at sea and open up the possibility of new federal funds to deliver these projects. We are grateful to the Army Corps of Engineers and the Salton Sea Authority for their partnership and look forward to further community involvement to help inform this effort.”
The Salton Sea faces multiple challenges, largely due to significant water transfers from the Colorado River into urban areas and away from area farms that flow into the lake. With declining inflow, the lake is shrinking rapidly and its salinity is increasing. Millions of fish have died and thousands of acres of lakes laden with over 100 years of pesticides, fertilizers and other potential hazards are exposed to the open air.
“I think it’s a great day, it’s an important next step in making some permanent changes at sea so that people feel safer, better and good about the future of their region,” said G. Patrick O’Dowd. , General Manager and Executive Director. of the Salton Sea Authority, who, along with Balten and state officials, signed the agreement.
“I see it a little differently than a conventional study, because this is essentially the underwriting of a project that will be determined by the Corps of Engineers. Once the Corps goes through three years and three levels of study…we will have a Corps-approved ecosystem restoration project, approved by Congress and eligible for a 65% federal contribution,” O’Dowd said. “It is a comprehensive study that addresses all permitting issues and determines an apparently ready-to-construction project for sguarantee assignments.
He stressed that these funds, if successfully obtained, would cover two-thirds of the costs, but matching funds would need to be found at the state or regional level for the remaining one-third.
Still, he said, “it’s a good deal, it’s a big step forward in attracting federal partners at a meaningful level.”
O’Dowd noted that while the Bureau of Reclamation and the Department of the Interior recently signed another agreement to provide up to $250 million in federal funds in exchange for further damaging cuts to the Colorado River supply, the Army Corps, which is design and construction arm of the Department. Defense, has access to much larger funds.
“It’s a good deal, it’s a big step forward in attracting federal partners at a meaningful level,” O’Dowd said.
An Army Corps official confirmed that billions of dollars could be allocated for a project, though many steps must be completed first.
“Yes, it’s possible, but first they have to do the study,” said Dena O’Dell, chief spokeswoman for the Corps’ Los Angeles-area district. “Usually they start with a feasibility study, then move into pre-construction engineering and design, and then the last step is the construction phase. … Once they’ve determined what route they’re going to take, whatever project they’re going to do, then… it’s a 65-35 cost share. But the first thing they must do is evaluate what they are going to do”.
O’Dell stressed that different and probably always large amounts of money must be raised for each stage, and matching funds are needed. But the possibility of raising funds from deep-pocketed defense budgets could finally provide a realistic path for large-scale work in the vast and glittering, but increasingly dangerous lake.
Congressional Action
The Salton Sea work was selected from multiple US project study requests, with around a half dozen typically selected each year. The Salton Sea Authority, along with California Senator Dianne Feinstein and US Representative Raúl Ruiz, both Democrats, lobbied for years for approval for the study phase only.
Finally, a resolution of the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works authorized the Secretary of the Army to “investigate and recommend improvements for flood risk management, ecosystem restoration, and other water-related resources.” and land, with a view to restoring and protecting the environment and improving the public health and safety of the Salton Sea and its tributaries in Riverside, Imperial and San Diego counties,” according to a joint press release.
“There is an urgent need to address the public health crisis in the Salton Sea and strengthen the all hands on deck approach. Over the years, I have worked to build momentum and strengthen our coordinated efforts … (including) helping fund the Army Corps Imperial Streams, Salton Sea and Tributaries project that will provide the long-term solutions we need,” he said. Ruiz. in an email.
Very divergent proposals on how to “save” the Sea
The federal agency will have its work cut out for it, as it reviews more than a dozen projects and 11 different concepts included in a contentious draft long term plan released Thursday by state agencies. Potential projects range from building and filling a narrow “perimeter lake” around the edge of the now-exposed lake shore, bisecting the rapidly diminishing lake, building desalination plants along its edges, or importing water from the Sea of Cortez. from Mexico 160 miles away. , among others.
Possible costs range from $2.1 billion for a basic lake-dividing proposal, not including the costs of building a highway between the two resulting smaller lakes, to $79 billion for long-distance water imports, though critics say the Consultants who prepared the report grossly overestimated the costs of the imported pipeline and desalination, and underestimated the costs of the projects they designed themselves.
“The process to get to where they are with the long-range plan has been kind of rigged…their long-range plan committee was really phony,” said Tom Sephton, who was appointed to that committee to represent EcoMedia Compass, a environmental organization. nonprofit working in the Salton Sea, who also submitted a desalination proposal on behalf of his business, Sephton Water Technologies, which did not receive top marks in several areas. Sephton and other committee members became angry after being told they would not have the chance to read the details of the different proposals or prepare a final report of their own, as they had hoped.
“I’m just waiting to see where it goes,” Sephton said of the feasibility study, “and wondering if the Army Corps is capable of being free of the internal influence that has controlled the state process.”
A spokesman for the state natural resources agency said committee members and the public could comment for 45 days on the more than 200-page report and various projects, findings and recommendations.
Whichever project the Army Corps is focused on, Sephton agreed that one advantage of the federal agency’s work is that it could lead to considerable funding.
“I think it’s necessary for an important reason,” Sephton said of the feasibility process. “If they do this with the Army Corps, then they are eligible for 65% of the costs of a project that goes through this particular process of the National Environmental Protection Law.”
Janet Wilson is a senior environmental reporter for The Desert Sun and co-author of USA Today’s Climate Point. She can be reached at jwilson@gannett.com and on Twitter @janetwilson66.