The Salton Sea in Search of Solutions

In the face of the serious environmental crisis facing the Salton Sea, California’s largest lake in Imperial and Riverside counties, affected communities are speaking out. Not only against the causes of the serious pollution and advocating for the health of the affected communities, but they are also proposing alternatives. Ruben Tapia presents some of these voices.

Faced with the environmental crisis in the Saton Sea, California’s largest lake, located south of the Coachela Valley and north of the Imperial Valley, impacted communities continue to raise their voices not only to criticize but to propose solutions. Silvia Paz, head of the Coachella Valley Alliance, said.

“We have identified that wetlands can have the impact of cleaning the water if you place them in places where the water is coming in, so near where the rivers drain into the lagoon, it is important to have those wetlands so that they are naturally cleaning the water.

In addition, they believe that they need to invest in infrastructure projects, says organizer Silvia Paz.

A trail that would actually connect all the communities that live near the Salton Sea, on the Riverside County side, in the Coachella Valley, there is already a trail planned that goes all the way to the Coachella community right now to the agencies responsible for that trail. They are planning how to extend that trail into the Salto communities.

For his part, environmentalist Moisés Cervantes of the Sierra Club is calling for more resources to be invested in research.

“Scientists are doing the best they can right now, but we need more help,” Cervantes said.

One of these projects is to place straw bales on the Salton Sea beach.

“So that they trap the sand from the bad winds. Yes, it is trapping sand and toxins. But it’s a tiny study. So it’s more resources to do bigger things.”

Another study is aimed at building a plant to filter water.

“A desalination plant so that the water becomes more fresh water and can clean itself by a large filtration medium. Another would be to have the solution to pay the farmers not to dump the water with the pollutants into the lake”.

While scientists continue to search for alternatives, Moisés Cervantes recommends this to area families when windstorms and hurricanes arrive.

“Have air filters inside your house. There are some that don’t cost much, about $40 and always have an understanding of when the air becomes bad quality. Be inside an area that is filtering the air.”

But the best way to get their communities revitalized is to organize campaigns like the Campaign for Thriving Salton Sea Communities,

“We have a vision of not just having a solution for the beach, but that the solution is also amplified for the well-being of the people, of the community, that brings a balance between economic development and health.”

But the challenges are enormous, as the deterioration of what was once a very popular tourist area requires a lot of resources, says José Luis Olmedo Vélez, director of the Comité Cívico del Valle.

“20 years ago it was said that to mitigate, not solve it. Mitigating the risk would require more than 30 billion dollars.

Olmedo Vélez points out that the current figure could be double that, or 60 billion dollars.

“If they simply give 1 billion per year, we are talking about 30 to 60 years to mitigate the problem.

But to make any progress they need to unite voices, concludes environmentalist Moises Cervantes of the Sierra Club.

“We have to collaborate so that together we can bring the necessary resources that are going to be needed. If we are divided, they are not going to give us the resources we need”.

This is part of the “Cuando se seca el Arroyo” series, funded in part by The Walton Family Foundation.