Biologists Fearful Water Scheme Will Kill the 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 flooding of local farms.

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.

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.

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.

One conservation group in the valley 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.

“We’re looking at an ecological disaster,” Carr said.