We are at a tipping point for California’s extremely-bio diverse, largest lake- the Salton Sea. Against an unholy alliance of traditional environmental organizations and government agencies, CURE opposes the decision of the State Water Resources Control Board to allow the diversion of over 100,000 acre feet of water from the Salton Sea – a move that almost guarantees the end of the Pacific flyway. This decision was justified by the State proposing a 10-year plan (only partially funded) possibly creating 15,000 acres of wetlands and another 15,000 acres of salt ponds. To date, the 10-year plan has accomplished nothing that the public can see.
When the historic water transfer from IID to the coast was adopted in 2002, CURE filed litigation arguing that the State would do nothing even if it promised a Restoration Plan within 15 years. Since then, tens of millions of dollars were spent and not ONE ACRE OF WETLANDS was created and maintained.
As is typical, the most affected communities are poor and largely minority without the option to move away from what the traditional environmental organizations once described as an “environmental Chernobyl”. Nothing has changed except a growing defeatism derived from long wars of attrition that so often mean the environment and poor lose.
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