Throughout the coming months, the Imperial Irrigation District will prepare a new plan for Salton Sea mitigation should the district be able to sell more water to cover project costs.
At its first meeting of the year, district staff updated the board on the status of Salton Sea mitigation issues, including burrowing owl counts, the managed marsh project, air quality mitigation measures, the state’s species conservation habitat plan and a petition to the state water board.
The projects are in place to mitigate impacts from the nation’s largest agriculture-to-urban water transfer, the Quantification Settlement Agreement, whereby the local water agency sends Colorado River entitlement water to coastal cities.
The most recent project is the State Water Resources Control Board petition to allow the IID to sell water that would have been sent to the Salton Sea through the next four years to keep the water level up. The board voted last year to send the petition to the state, and a new mitigation plan is required before the state will approve such a plan.
“That water, which was supposed to stabilize the sea until that point in time (when the state could take over restoration) … really isn’t very useful for that purpose,” said IID environmental project manager Bruce Wilcox. “We’re suggesting that we can do better things with it from an air quality point of view, better things with it from a mitigation point of view.”
With that funding, there should be close to enough money for air quality and habitat mitigation, he said.
District staff will get back to the board, possibly as soon as next week with a cost-sharing analysis with San Diego County Water Authority to cover those costs, said General Manager Kevin Kelley.
Some didn’t think it was even necessary to go to the state for permission. Former IID Director John Benson said if the district wants to sell the water, it should just do that.
He called on the district to do something, because though the state has said it would pay for restoration, it’s going to end up being a local job.
“We need to focus on what is practical and what works, and I haven’t seen anyone do that,” he said. “… The Salton Sea should be a source of jobs, recreation, hunting and fishing. It ought to be a gradually growing economic bonanza for the Imperial Valley, and now it’s just dying.”
Others just asked the district to be careful with how they come up with a new mitigation plan. Brawley farmer Mike Morgan looked into one of the consulting groups the district was looking to hire, Plantierra.
The group has only been in place for about a year, and the district had dealt with the man who founded it while he was working with Newfields, Wilcox said.
Morgan called for the district to be careful about working with a business because members had worked with the district in the past. “It absolutely doesn’t work,” he warned.
Here are three things that came out of Tuesday’s IID Board of Directors meeting
1 - The board reorganized Tuesday, holding its first meeting of the year with a new board president and vice president. After honoring past President Stella Mendoza, President John Pierre Menvielle said that his main goal for the year is to work with the board and staff and try and be as transparent as possible.
2 - IID is going to pick back up its regional water management planning efforts after the state released funding for the district in December, reported Assistant Water Manager Tina Shields. The target completion goal is late summer of this year.
3 - The district board approved a revised major work authorization that had originally been brought before the board Dec. 20 for review. The revisions tighten up the financial controls and facilitate work in the district, said Carl Stills, portfolio management officer.
Staff Writer Elizabeth Varin can be reached at evarin@ivpressonline.com or 760-337-3441.
At its first meeting of the year, district staff updated the board on the status of Salton Sea mitigation issues, including burrowing owl counts, the managed marsh project, air quality mitigation measures, the state’s species conservation habitat plan and a petition to the state water board.
The projects are in place to mitigate impacts from the nation’s largest agriculture-to-urban water transfer, the Quantification Settlement Agreement, whereby the local water agency sends Colorado River entitlement water to coastal cities.
The most recent project is the State Water Resources Control Board petition to allow the IID to sell water that would have been sent to the Salton Sea through the next four years to keep the water level up. The board voted last year to send the petition to the state, and a new mitigation plan is required before the state will approve such a plan.
“That water, which was supposed to stabilize the sea until that point in time (when the state could take over restoration) … really isn’t very useful for that purpose,” said IID environmental project manager Bruce Wilcox. “We’re suggesting that we can do better things with it from an air quality point of view, better things with it from a mitigation point of view.”
With that funding, there should be close to enough money for air quality and habitat mitigation, he said.
District staff will get back to the board, possibly as soon as next week with a cost-sharing analysis with San Diego County Water Authority to cover those costs, said General Manager Kevin Kelley.
Some didn’t think it was even necessary to go to the state for permission. Former IID Director John Benson said if the district wants to sell the water, it should just do that.
He called on the district to do something, because though the state has said it would pay for restoration, it’s going to end up being a local job.
“We need to focus on what is practical and what works, and I haven’t seen anyone do that,” he said. “… The Salton Sea should be a source of jobs, recreation, hunting and fishing. It ought to be a gradually growing economic bonanza for the Imperial Valley, and now it’s just dying.”
Others just asked the district to be careful with how they come up with a new mitigation plan. Brawley farmer Mike Morgan looked into one of the consulting groups the district was looking to hire, Plantierra.
The group has only been in place for about a year, and the district had dealt with the man who founded it while he was working with Newfields, Wilcox said.
Morgan called for the district to be careful about working with a business because members had worked with the district in the past. “It absolutely doesn’t work,” he warned.
Here are three things that came out of Tuesday’s IID Board of Directors meeting
1 - The board reorganized Tuesday, holding its first meeting of the year with a new board president and vice president. After honoring past President Stella Mendoza, President John Pierre Menvielle said that his main goal for the year is to work with the board and staff and try and be as transparent as possible.
2 - IID is going to pick back up its regional water management planning efforts after the state released funding for the district in December, reported Assistant Water Manager Tina Shields. The target completion goal is late summer of this year.
3 - The district board approved a revised major work authorization that had originally been brought before the board Dec. 20 for review. The revisions tighten up the financial controls and facilitate work in the district, said Carl Stills, portfolio management officer.
Staff Writer Elizabeth Varin can be reached at evarin@ivpressonline.com or 760-337-3441.
