Advocating for Science in the Salton Sea: The Salton Sea Task Force

Abstract:

The Salton Sea, an endorheic saline lake in southern California, USA, is in crisis. A combination of mismanagement, negligence and competition between federal, state and local agencies has resulted in stalled and misguided efforts to address dropping water levels and unstable lake biogeochemistry. This in turn had led to a growing public health crisis as exposed shoreline exposes potentially toxic dust to local and regional communities, while the ecosystem collapses due to rising salinity and anoxia. While the state is making an effort to address the crisis, the lack of a science-based approach to fix the Salton Sea prompted the EDGE Institute and Science 2 Policy programs at UC Riverside to launch a multidisciplinary Salton Sea Task Force (SSTF) to identify critical research necessary to guide policymakers in making decisions about three potential realistic scenarios facing the future lake: (1) Business-as-usual, where lake levels decline precipitously without intervention; (2) Mitigation, where current plans such as wetland restoration and dust suppression are implemented; and (3) Water importation; where water from the ocean or freshwater sources are imported to stabilize lake levels. The SSTF combines expertise that has presented to and written documents to be provided to policymakers at local, state and federal government. In our efforts we address the outstanding health challenges, air quality and dust, hydrology and water resources, ecology, biogeochemistry, minerals and energy aspects of the Salton Sea. Together we hope to make difference to save the Salton Sea.