USA, California:

Gov. Brown Signs Salton Sea Bill (Imperial Valley Press)

It’s been about two years in the making, but now stakeholders in the Imperial Valley will have more local control and a bigger say in what becomes of efforts to save the Salton Sea.

On Saturday, Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 71 into law, a piece of legislation authored by local representative Assemblyman V. Manuel Pérez, D-Coachella, which directs state officials to coordinate with the Salton Sea Authority on finding fixes for the sea.

While the fruits of this law won’t be immediately felt, it’s a banner day for the Valley and those who must live with the ever-present threat of a broken body of water in our backyard. This is the local control many of us believe we should have had from the start in dealing with the future of the sea.

The Salton Sea Authority is already planning smaller-scale restoration projects, with the end goal of building out the geothermal energy industry around the sea to bankroll a more permanent solution to the sea’s ills. All of this sounds much more realistic when met with the idea that local interests have so much more of a role in making it happen.

(Courtesy Salton Sea Authority) 

There have been lots of bills here and there over the years, but this might just be the most significant yet. Not for what it says, but for what it does not say: Nowhere in the text can the feeling of optimism be spelled out that exists moving forward. Timing is everything, and this is the right time.

The Imperial Valley and the Salton Sea is the destination for a GRC Field Trip departing this afternoon from the GRC Annual Meeting & GEA Expo at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada.

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