Water Plan Raises Fears of a Dead Salton Sea

State wildlife biologists say a plan to gradually lower the surface level of the Salton Sea, one of the state’s most productive fisheries, may raise its salinity to a level that would destroy most fish life within 10 years.

“One of the state’s best fisheries will go down the tubes,” said Glen Black, a state Department of Fish and Game fisheries biologist. “This is the greatest threat ever to the sea.”

The plan grew out of a lawsuit settlement reached March 13 under which the Imperial Irrigation District agreed to lower the surface level of the sea eight feet over the next nine years in an effort to prevent the flooding of local farms. Some farmlands along the shoreline have been flooded periodically as result of huge flows into the sea from canals operated by the irrigation district.

The agreement will require the district to adopt conservation measures reducing surplus flows from irrigated farms it serves. Those measures, ranging from lining irrigation ditches to the construction of collection ponds, will be financed through a complex arrangement with the Metropolitan Water District. Last November the MWD tentatively pledged $10 million a year toward the effort.

The conservation program has been applauded in recent months as a milestone plan to correct longstanding waste of the state’s dwindling water supply. The water saved under the program--an estimated 100,000 acre-feet per year--is now scheduled to be taken by the MWD for distribution to its customers throughout Southern California.

Robert Schemp, an MWD engineer who participated in the negotiations with the irrigation district, said the sponsors plan to complete an environmental assessment of the project that will consider its impact on the sea’s fish and wildlife. “We will address that when we come to it,” he said.

Another MWD official noted that the 100,000 acre-feet obtained in the deal represents about one-sixth of the water Los Angeles uses in a year. “We’re looking for water and this is a lot less expensive than having to build dams in Northern California,” said Tim Skrove, a spokesman for the agency.

The Salton Sea covers 365 square miles near Brawley and is one of the largest inland bodies of water in California. The sea was created 80 years ago when the Colorado River broke through a silt-laden canal and roared unimpeded for two years into the Salton Sink.

Irrigation runoff traditionally has helped stabilize the salinity of the sea, enabling fish such as croaker, corvina and sargo to thrive and make the region a haven for tens of thousands of birds and migratory waterfowl, Black said.

If the planned reductions take place, salinity will increase and “there will be no reproduction or survival of fish in the main body of the sea,” Black said. He added that “once the fish go,” there will be a “tremendous loss of other wildlife,” such as birds that feed on the fish.

As it stands, an estimated 2 million visitors and 1 million fishermen a year visit the sea, a major economic resource for the Imperial Valley and home for a variety of endangered species of birds, including peregrine falcons, bald eagles, Yuma clapper rails and pelicans.

“I’d like to see some national conservation group like the Sierra Club or the Audubon Society step in,” said one fish and game official who asked not to be named. He said he was surprised at the low-key approach these groups have taken toward the situation.

“Maybe it is because we have cried wolf too many times,” he added, acknowledging that similar predictions have been made before. “Maybe it is because the Salton Sea is remote, hot and stinks.”

Local Group Involved

However, a conservation group in the Imperial Valley says it will fight to save the sea. “The lake has never faced a crisis where people said they would actually take water away--and that is what the irrigation district is saying now,” said Bill Carr, executive director of the Salton Sea Coordinating Council.

Carr maintains that the salinity of the sea would surge to a level that will kill fish--about 60,000 parts of salt per million parts of water--as early as 1990, barring large influxes of fresh water in heavy rain years. Carr said the calculation is based on a formula provided by a state Water Resources Board official, but he declined to identify the official.

“We’re looking at an ecological disaster,” Carr said. “All we’ll have left is a 200-square-mile salt sump.”

Important Benefits Cited

Nonetheless, some conservationists contend that the benefits of saving water outweigh the consequences to wildlife.

“It is a better way to get supplemental water for Southern California than having them come up here and get it from the Bay Area,” said Thomas J. Graff, an attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund in San Francisco. “We think if a trade-off is going to be made, the Salton Sea is going to have to suffer.”

The legal settlement grew out of a lawsuit by John Elmore, a local land owner who charged that the irrigation district drained excess water into the sea from farmlands served by the district. These flows, Elmore claimed, raised the level of the sea and flooded his properties near the shoreline.

Under terms of the settlement with Elmore, the district plans to impose tighter regulations on water usage, line irrigation canals with concrete to prevent seepage and construct catch basins, irrigation district spokesman Ronald Hull said.

‘Agricultural Sump’

While he said he was sympathetic to the concerns of biologists, Hull pointed out that the Salton Sea “was an accident” that has since been designated an “agricultural sump.”

Besides, “We’re in a situation where we are facing lawsuits either way,” Hull said. “The state Water Resources Control Board, on behalf of farmers, says stop putting water into the sea. But state fish and game officials want us to keep putting water in there.”

Carr, the conservationist, said his group would not oppose a lowering of the lake if other measures were first undertaken to ensure the survival of the sea’s fish life. In 1973 a joint federal-state report proposed a large-scale desalination project to reverse the decline of the sea as a wildlife environment, but the project never received financial support.

“We agree the lake must be lowered,” Carr said. “But we do not want it lowered beyond the survival level of the fish until a desalination program is instituted.”