Salton Sea Panel OKs Plan to Restore Lake by Dividing It in Two

A $730-million plan to restore California’s largest lake by cutting it in two won the approval of the Salton Sea Authority on Thursday, but it still must win the support of the Schwarzenegger administration.

The decision highlights what appear to be two separate efforts to restore the Salton Sea, one generated by local officials in the Imperial Valley region and the other in Sacramento, where state officials are launching their own study on how to save the sea from choking in salt.

Both efforts are intended to offset the effects of a major water agreement last year that allows Imperial Valley farmers to sell some of their water to San Diego. That agreement will reduce the amount of farm runoff flowing into the lake, which in turn will sharply increase the salt content of the already saline lake, threatening birds and fish.

The plan endorsed Thursday was drawn up for the Salton Sea Authority, made up of local governments and water districts.

It calls for construction of a causeway across the lake to conserve habitat for hundreds of bird species while allowing for recreation. It would divide the sea into a cleaner, less salty lake to the north and a saltier, drier area to the south, according to a consultant’s report.

Members of the Salton Sea Authority say the causeway plan would benefit the environment and economy by making the lake healthier. The authority was created in 1993 to protect and restore the lake. But the same 2003 agreement that will reduce runoff into the lake also gave the state the job of restoring it.

Legislation directed the state to restore the Salton Sea ecosystem and protect the fish and wildlife dependent on that system, said state Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman. “It provided that any future actions to restore the sea will be the sole responsibility of the state,” he said.

A legally mandated committee has been formed, and the state will follow the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act in reviewing possible restoration plans and choosing the one it deems the best, Chrisman said.

He said that, during a recent tour of the Salton Sea, he assured authority officials that state planners probably would consider the causeway plan.

But the authority’s executive director, Tom Kirk, said Thursday that he feared that two government agencies might be trying to do the same thing.

Kirk said he submitted a draft agreement to Chrisman’s office last week in hopes of assuring cooperation among local, state and federal agencies, but had not yet received a response. “We’re trying to get everyone on the same page,” he said.

Funding for the causeway plan could come from $300 million earmarked in the water pact to restore the lake, as well as a new development agency surrounding the lake, he said.

The Salton Sea is a 360-square-mile agricultural sump fed by water runoff from Imperial Valley farms. It was created in 1905 when the Colorado River broke through a canal and filled a basin known as the Salton Sink.