USA, California: Geothermal Energy Will Benefit from Salton Sea Restoration

At Salton Sea, political pressure finally spurs progress (The Desert Sun)

The Imperial Irrigation District's Controversial Strategy Appears To Be Working

After decades of false starts and warnings of disaster, hope is on the horizon at the Salton Sea.

No, there's still no plan to return California's largest lake to its former glory. There's still little chance of keeping the lake from shrinking, or from polluting Southern California's air with toxic dust as vast swaths of bone-dry lakebed are exposed.

But a flurry of recent activity — arguably spurred by the Imperial Irrigation District's political brinkmanship — has convinced many Salton Sea advocates that California will finally make good on its promise to revitalize the dying lake.

Local officials, meanwhile, have coalesced around two concrete proposals: the Salton Sea Restoration and Renewable Energy Initiative, developed by the Imperial Irrigation District and Imperial County, and the Salton Sea Authority's so-called SSWIFT plan. Wilcox hopes to submit some combination of those plans to the governor's office by March 31, in response to a bill written by Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, which Brown signed into law earlier this year.

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