Salton Sea cleanup in jeopardy as states battle over Colorado River water By Tom Gajewski April 2, 2017 | http://www.csufresno.edu/global/opinion/2017/04/17/salton-sea-cleanup-jeopardy-states-battle-over-colorado-river-water/ On April 13, the Salton Sea, a salty buttescape that sits in the middle of the Colorado River watershed, finally received a federal green light to be cleaned up. While some politicians and environmental activists will likely herald this decision as a victory for their cause, cleanups of other major river basins won’t be nearly as easy.
On April 13, the Salton Sea, a salty buttescape that sits in the middle of the Colorado River watershed, finally received a federal green light to be cleaned up. While some politicians and environmental activists will likely herald this decision as a victory for their cause, cleanups of other major river basins won’t be nearly as easy.
The Salton Sea is home to some of the most biologically diverse and threatened ecosystems in the Western United States, and at the same time is one of the largest coastal saltwater wetlands on Earth. Once a thriving tropical wetland, the Salton Sea was reduced to a marsh by the construction of the Colorado River aqueduct, which transported water from the Colorado River watershed into southern California in the late 1800’s. Since then it has slowly been transformed into a salty, briny desert, home to plants and animals that have adapted to the conditions on the surface all year round instead of a mere season of the year. The Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge protects a large portion of Salton Sea, and in addition to its ecological benefits, it also provides an important recreational resource for kayakers, anglers, rafters and mountain bikers.
This past June the Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge was awarded $60,000 in Federal Emergency Management Agency funding, the largest amount awarded to a Federal wildlife refuge since the program began in 1983. However, the Salton Sea is not the only part of the Colorado River watershed that is in severe danger of being flooded.
