The Imperial Irrigation District will take a stand to put Salton Sea mitigation projects in the ground now rather than continue with meetings.
The district Board of Directors voted 4-1 to petition the State Water Resources Control Board to allow it to transfer 480,000 acre-feet of water that is set to be sent to the Salton Sea for mitigation between 2014 and 2017 to the coast and use money from that transfer to pay for mitigation projects at the receding sea.
“It places the district squarely on the side of a realistic approach to Salton Sea restoration, one that emphasizes the mitigation of air impacts, the preservation of habitat features and the cultivation of renewable resources at the Salton Sea, and to do so sooner rather than later,” said General Manager Kevin Kelley.
The district has been involved in talks with the Bureau of Reclamation and other water agencies about its early release of mitigation water to the Salton Sea last year, he said.
Those talks have morphed into a discussion about mitigation of the effect of the nation’s largest agriculture-to-urban water transfer, the Quantification Settlement Agreement, on the Salton Sea and how to mitigate it.
The urgency behind the resolution is because the water agencies are set to meet again today, and Kelley has made clear to the other water agencies that “IID will not meet forever, and it will take action unlike seemingly everyone else,” he said.
Another option that has been brought up by some of the other water agencies including the Coachella Valley Water District would be to cut San Diego County Water Authority’s water in half and use that water for mitigation. This would cut in half the money that IID would receive from the San Diego water agency, Kelley said.
The resolution, which board President Stella Mendoza asked the board to support, will force other water agencies to show their cards, she said. They will have to either support or oppose what IID is proposing.
“I think most of all this resolution tells Met (Metropolitan Water District of Southern California) where it can go,” she said, adding that the Los Angeles water district has not stepped up at all to deal with the Salton Sea.
The vote was not unanimous as Director Jim Hanks asked for some stronger language to be included. He wanted a paragraph spelling out how the district shouldn’t continue to pay for the QSA’s appeal process.
The QSA was invalidated by a Sacramento Superior Court judge last year, and the case is being appealed.
The state hasn’t stepped up to fill its obligations with the Salton Sea restoration, and the IID is paying for it, Hanks said. If other water agencies don’t step up to deal with the issues affecting the Imperial Valley, the IID should shut off the funding mechanism for the appeal and renegotiate a better deal for this area.
“The clock is running,” he said.
Some others wanted to wait on a vote, including county Supervisor Gary Wyatt.
Wyatt approached the IID board asking it to hold off on a vote so IID and the county could discuss the proposal. The mitigation project proposal is not a proven solution for air-quality issues, he said.
The proposal in the resolution is a set of shallow water habitats to support fish and wildlife dependent on the Salton Sea.
Filing the petition with the state water board doesn’t rule out meeting with other agencies, said IID General Counsel Jeff Garber. It only begins the order change application process, which Kelley said could take up to two years.
Staff Writer Elizabeth Varin can be reached at evarin@ivpressonline.com or 760-337-3441.
Meeting glance
Here are three things that came out of Tuesday’s IID Board of Directors meeting
1 - Directors John Pierre Menvielle and Matt Dessert will both work with staff to review new policies for procurement of goods and services, as well as the competitive bid process.
2 - Work began Tuesday to backfill dirt at the former Rio Vista Substation site near Phil Swing school in Brawley after work took place last month to clean up the site, reported environmental management staff. More work will be done in the area to clean up other sections with similar problems.
3 - The board approved a major work authorization for a more than $3 million project to upgrade the Alamorio Substation near Brawley.
The district Board of Directors voted 4-1 to petition the State Water Resources Control Board to allow it to transfer 480,000 acre-feet of water that is set to be sent to the Salton Sea for mitigation between 2014 and 2017 to the coast and use money from that transfer to pay for mitigation projects at the receding sea.
“It places the district squarely on the side of a realistic approach to Salton Sea restoration, one that emphasizes the mitigation of air impacts, the preservation of habitat features and the cultivation of renewable resources at the Salton Sea, and to do so sooner rather than later,” said General Manager Kevin Kelley.
The district has been involved in talks with the Bureau of Reclamation and other water agencies about its early release of mitigation water to the Salton Sea last year, he said.
Those talks have morphed into a discussion about mitigation of the effect of the nation’s largest agriculture-to-urban water transfer, the Quantification Settlement Agreement, on the Salton Sea and how to mitigate it.
The urgency behind the resolution is because the water agencies are set to meet again today, and Kelley has made clear to the other water agencies that “IID will not meet forever, and it will take action unlike seemingly everyone else,” he said.
Another option that has been brought up by some of the other water agencies including the Coachella Valley Water District would be to cut San Diego County Water Authority’s water in half and use that water for mitigation. This would cut in half the money that IID would receive from the San Diego water agency, Kelley said.
The resolution, which board President Stella Mendoza asked the board to support, will force other water agencies to show their cards, she said. They will have to either support or oppose what IID is proposing.
“I think most of all this resolution tells Met (Metropolitan Water District of Southern California) where it can go,” she said, adding that the Los Angeles water district has not stepped up at all to deal with the Salton Sea.
The vote was not unanimous as Director Jim Hanks asked for some stronger language to be included. He wanted a paragraph spelling out how the district shouldn’t continue to pay for the QSA’s appeal process.
The QSA was invalidated by a Sacramento Superior Court judge last year, and the case is being appealed.
The state hasn’t stepped up to fill its obligations with the Salton Sea restoration, and the IID is paying for it, Hanks said. If other water agencies don’t step up to deal with the issues affecting the Imperial Valley, the IID should shut off the funding mechanism for the appeal and renegotiate a better deal for this area.
“The clock is running,” he said.
Some others wanted to wait on a vote, including county Supervisor Gary Wyatt.
Wyatt approached the IID board asking it to hold off on a vote so IID and the county could discuss the proposal. The mitigation project proposal is not a proven solution for air-quality issues, he said.
The proposal in the resolution is a set of shallow water habitats to support fish and wildlife dependent on the Salton Sea.
Filing the petition with the state water board doesn’t rule out meeting with other agencies, said IID General Counsel Jeff Garber. It only begins the order change application process, which Kelley said could take up to two years.
Staff Writer Elizabeth Varin can be reached at evarin@ivpressonline.com or 760-337-3441.
Meeting glance
Here are three things that came out of Tuesday’s IID Board of Directors meeting
1 - Directors John Pierre Menvielle and Matt Dessert will both work with staff to review new policies for procurement of goods and services, as well as the competitive bid process.
2 - Work began Tuesday to backfill dirt at the former Rio Vista Substation site near Phil Swing school in Brawley after work took place last month to clean up the site, reported environmental management staff. More work will be done in the area to clean up other sections with similar problems.
3 - The board approved a major work authorization for a more than $3 million project to upgrade the Alamorio Substation near Brawley.
