California federal and state lawmakers broke ground for a 750-acre project to restore the Salton Sea that received $250 million from the federal Inflation Reduction Act.
The Salton Sea is a shallow, landlocked, highly salt lake in Riverside and Imperial counties in southern California near the Mexican border.
Funding for a series of projects, including the one for which officials broke ground on Tuesday, is part of the $4 billion in federal monies the state received to support a 10-year plan to restore a region devastated by drought over the years and receives water from the
Xavier Mascareñas / California Department of Water Resources
Drought and the
“As the Salton Sea lakebed recedes, toxic dust is contaminating air quality and threatening the stability of the local ecosystem,” said U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California.
The $250 million in federal funding, secured through cooperation between the Imperial Irrigation District and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, will allow the project to expand its footprint, providing critical environmental benefits while addressing both air quality and habitat needs. This collaborative effort is a key step forward after years of inaction, according to IID.
The Species Conservation Habitat (SCH) Project, managed by the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA), will expand by 750 acres beyond the 4,100 acres already under construction.
This project is a major part of California’s 10-year plan to mitigate environmental and health impacts caused by the receding of the Salton Sea. The project’s ponds and wetlands will provide vital habitat for fish and birds and reduce harmful dust emissions by inundating exposed lakebed.
Padilla and U.S. Rep. Paul Ruiz, D-Calif., were among the officials who gathered at the Salton Sea’s south end to celebrate the expansion of the 10-year Salton Sea Management Program. The project received the first $70 million of the IRA grant in December.
Padilla said he worked to include $4 billion for drought resiliency and inland waterways, including for projects to address historic drought impacting the Colorado River Basin and Salton Sea, in the act.
The $250 million in federal funding Padilla secured for the SSMP allows the Department of the Interior to contribute to vital restoration projects at the Salton Sea, including to expedite existing projects the state and water users are contributing to, like the SCH Project.
The Department of the Interior also awarded $367 million to California last year to protect the Colorado River Basin and for Salton Sea restoration.
In August, the Bureau of Reclamation and the Imperial Irrigation District agreed to conserve nearly 230 billion gallons of water by 2026, facilitate land access for project implementation, and provide an additional $175 million in federal funding to accelerate California’s Salton Sea restoration efforts.
The California Natural Resources Agency, the California Department of Water Resources, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife are working to implement the 10-year plan to improve the region by constructing 29,800 acres of habitat and dust-suppression projects.
Less than two years ago, “we signed a memorandum of understanding for the Salton Sea, and here we are today breaking ground on phase two of the Species Conservation Habitat Project, on the heels of signing the largest water conservation agreement with the Imperial Irrigation District,” said Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton. “We’re grateful to our partners in the state of California, the Imperial Irrigation District Board, and farmers and growers in the Imperial and Coachella Valley for leading the way for the sea and the Colorado River Basin.”
The $70 million investment is a portion of the $250 million that Padilla, Ruiz, the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and U.S. Rep. Juan Vargas, D-Calif., secured from the IRA for drought resiliency. The federal funding commitments were made in the 2022 Commitment to Support Salton Sea Management Related to Water Conservation in the Lower Colorado River Basin agreement.
The funding helps set the current project footprint at nearly 5,000 acres with the potential to expand to around 8,000 acres.
“For years, my constituents have shared their concerns about the harmful impacts of the Salton Sea. As a physician in Congress, I have been committed to addressing this ongoing public health and environmental crisis,” Ruiz said. Thanks to our partnership with the Biden-Harris administration and the $4 billion secured through the Inflation Reduction Act to stabilize the Colorado River Basin, we are bringing vital resources to our communities that will protect the health, environment, and economy of our region.”
The project is part of California’s commitment to protecting the Colorado River by conserving 1.6 million acre-feet through the Lower Basin Plan, said JB Hamby, chairman for the Colorado River Board of California.