USA, California:

Salton Sea: Inaction Would Cost Billions, Report Finds (Press-Enterprise)

Future geothermal energy generation could help restoration efforts

Salton Sea habitat projects in 2017

Failure to revitalize the ailing Salton Sea would cost the region as much as $70 billion over the next three decades from lost habitat, plummeting property values and health problems caused by blowing dust, a new report finds.

The study, “Hazard’s Toll: The Costs of Inaction at the Salton Sea,” was released today by the Pacific Institute, a nonpartisan think tank based in Oakland. It is the first work to assess the financial toll of not fixing the salty, fast-shrinking lake that straddles the Coachella and Imperial valleys.

The California Natural Resources Agency recommended the plan in 2007, but no action has been taken by the Legislature. It would create habitat and a rock-filled barrier to support a marine sea, make a brine sink for depositing excess salts, implement measures for controlling dust, and establish an area for future geothermal energy generation.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., has been pushing to have the land around Salton Sea designated as a renewable energy development focus area.

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