Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT TOM KIRK, SALTON SEA AUTHORITY, 
(760)-564-4888

Jan. 7, 2003

Dear Editors,  

The transfer of water from Imperial Valley farms to urban and suburban Southern California homes has stalled.

While the transfer made much sense to politicos, high ranking government officials, business leaders, and just about everybody outside the Imperial Valley and outside the environmental community, it fell apart in the 11th hour (or 365th day).

It fell apart largely because of the Salton Sea.  When the Imperial Valley was encouraged to transfer water they were told that the Salton Sea was a separate issue, distinct from the transfer.

However, it should not have taken a dream team of lawyers and expensive environmental reports to document the obvious:  if you transfer water that would have normally flowed into the Sea, the Sea will be impacted.  If you transfer a whole lot of water, the Sea will be impacted a whole lot.

Rather than take on how to deal with the Sea head-on, officials have been jumping through hoops to "facilitate" this water transfer, by changing environmental and water use laws, by providing cash incentives to do everything but fix the Sea, and by shifting, alleviating and postponing responsibility for impacts at the Sea.

They've been jumping through these hoops in part because they were told that without a transfer, the sky would fall on January 1, 2003.  The sky is still up there. Now Southern California's mammoth urban water provider, the Metropolitan Water District, tells us that the transfer would have been nice-- but it isn't essential and there are available supplies for 20 years.

So what's next?  Here’s a novel idea: How about dealing with the Sea head-on, before, or in-conjunction with, any transfers of water from the Imperial Valley?

In their bipartisan Dec. 19, 2002 letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, 22 Members of California's delegation to Congress recognized that linkage.

They said," The single greatest obstacle to... [the water transfers] is the uncertainty over the scope and cost of efforts to protect and restore the Salton Sea.  This continued uncertainty is the direct result of Interior's failure to carry out the provisions of the Salton Sea Reclamation Act of 1998."

Under that Act, a Salton Sea game plan was due January 2000.   Congress is still waiting for that plan.  Rather than waiting again for Chicken Little’s next dire predictions, Federal and State governments should work with the Salton Sea Authority to ensure that the Sea is a part of the California water plan, not apart from the water plan.

Tom Kirk
Salton Sea Authority

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