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Assemblyman Manuel Perez speaks at a press conference Friday at the Northshore Community Center. (FERNANDO ACOSTA JR. PHOTO / February 23, 2013) |
California’s much-maligned and much-loved Salton Sea offered local elected officials an opportunity to experience what could be lost if the Salton Sea is not restored, when Assemblymen Ben Hueso and V. Manuel Pérez paddled out on kayaks on a sunny and quiet Friday morning before holding a state oversight hearing on Salton Sea restoration.
“It’s pleasant out here,” Pérez said, sitting in his kayak after paddling about one mile. “You can come out here in the middle of the sea and just hang out.”
Hueso expressed thoughts on the subject very simply: he dove into the briny water and later joked that the sea has a pleasant odor and that he “tasted it as well.”
Hueso’s and Pérez’s visit comes about two months after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s high-profile visit and pledge of support, and as the Salton Sea Authority prepares to send a delegation to Washington, D.C., to discuss restoration with federal officials.
Some have speculated that optimism is building toward restoration.
What is needed, Pérez said, is political will.
“I do think there’s got to be political will. I think that the ideas are there by so many different entities. If the political will is there … then you can get somewhere,” he said, floating in his kayak in the middle of the sea.
Underscoring the importance of restoration, Salton Sea Authority board President Jim Hanks later that day pegged the region’s welfare to the sea.
“The Salton Sea will be the marker for the region,” he said. “How it goes, we go.”
To that end, Hueso’s and Pérez’s three panel discussions covered multiple facets toward restoration, from environmental issues to emerging opportunities to local stakeholder concerns.
One area of concern is the Salton Sea’s rising salinity level, projected to reach a level in 2017 too high for the millions of fish in the sea to live. The resulting die-off is expected to wipe out migratory birds’ food supply.
As one panelist offered a proposal to restore habitat, Hueso asked if more than habitat was being considered.
“Are we holistically solving this or just mitigating habitat?” he said.
Josephine Axt of the United States Army Corps of Engineers said that her agency’s focus is on restoration of habitat rather than funding.
“Do you have authority to recommend funding,” Hueso asked.
Stephen Mayfield of the San Diego Center for Biotechnology pitched the sea’s abundant algae as a potential source of revenue and catalyst for environmental restoration.
“Algae can be used to improve water quality,” he said. “Algae can extract nitrogen phosphate in the water,” he said. However, algae will not reduce salinity. To do so, another official said, requires the construction of an outflow for the sea.
While there is no shortage of ideas and proposals for restoration of the Salton Sea, funding is relatively scarce.
Salton Sea Authority Executive Director Roger Shintaku said the joint powers agency’s role is to facilitate disparate interests such as dust control and species conservation, and to do so, funding is needed.
“We need the assistance of the private sector to help fund this project,” he said.
Staff Writer Antoine Abou-Diwan can be reached at 760-337-3454 or aabou-diwan@ivpressonline.com
“It’s pleasant out here,” Pérez said, sitting in his kayak after paddling about one mile. “You can come out here in the middle of the sea and just hang out.”
Hueso expressed thoughts on the subject very simply: he dove into the briny water and later joked that the sea has a pleasant odor and that he “tasted it as well.”
Hueso’s and Pérez’s visit comes about two months after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s high-profile visit and pledge of support, and as the Salton Sea Authority prepares to send a delegation to Washington, D.C., to discuss restoration with federal officials.
Some have speculated that optimism is building toward restoration.
What is needed, Pérez said, is political will.
“I do think there’s got to be political will. I think that the ideas are there by so many different entities. If the political will is there … then you can get somewhere,” he said, floating in his kayak in the middle of the sea.
Underscoring the importance of restoration, Salton Sea Authority board President Jim Hanks later that day pegged the region’s welfare to the sea.
“The Salton Sea will be the marker for the region,” he said. “How it goes, we go.”
To that end, Hueso’s and Pérez’s three panel discussions covered multiple facets toward restoration, from environmental issues to emerging opportunities to local stakeholder concerns.
One area of concern is the Salton Sea’s rising salinity level, projected to reach a level in 2017 too high for the millions of fish in the sea to live. The resulting die-off is expected to wipe out migratory birds’ food supply.
As one panelist offered a proposal to restore habitat, Hueso asked if more than habitat was being considered.
“Are we holistically solving this or just mitigating habitat?” he said.
Josephine Axt of the United States Army Corps of Engineers said that her agency’s focus is on restoration of habitat rather than funding.
“Do you have authority to recommend funding,” Hueso asked.
Stephen Mayfield of the San Diego Center for Biotechnology pitched the sea’s abundant algae as a potential source of revenue and catalyst for environmental restoration.
“Algae can be used to improve water quality,” he said. “Algae can extract nitrogen phosphate in the water,” he said. However, algae will not reduce salinity. To do so, another official said, requires the construction of an outflow for the sea.
While there is no shortage of ideas and proposals for restoration of the Salton Sea, funding is relatively scarce.
Salton Sea Authority Executive Director Roger Shintaku said the joint powers agency’s role is to facilitate disparate interests such as dust control and species conservation, and to do so, funding is needed.
“We need the assistance of the private sector to help fund this project,” he said.
Staff Writer Antoine Abou-Diwan can be reached at 760-337-3454 or aabou-diwan@ivpressonline.com
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