Salton Sea Rehab Work Expands, Groundbreaking Ceremony Held

SALTON SEA, CA — Federal and local officials gathered Tuesday at the Salton Sea to celebrate the groundbreaking of an expanded restoration project at the south end of the vast water body.

The Species Conservation Habitat Project comes after the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation awarded California $70 million in December from the Inflation Reduction Act to continue rehabbing the sea.

The latest investment is a portion of the $250 million in federal funding that U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif., Congressman Raul Ruiz, M.D. (D-Calif.-25), the late Senator Dianne Feinstein, and Representative Juan Vargas (D-Calif.-52) secured in 2022 for the Salton Sea Management Program.

"As the Salton Sea lakebed recedes, toxic dust is contaminating air quality and threatening the stability of the local ecosystem," Padilla said Tuesday. "The $250 million in Inflation Reduction Act funding we secured for the Salton Sea Management Program is essential not only to protect public health in surrounding communities, but to restore the habitat of the abundant aquatic and avian wildlife in the region. Today’s exciting groundbreaking of the Species Conservation Habitat Project expansion will expand critical wetland habitat and improve air quality around the hazardous exposed lakebed."

Commitments made by the federal and state governments, as well as from regional agencies, will add 750 acres to the project’s footprint. The support helps set the current project footprint at nearly 5,000 acres with the potential to expand to around 8,000 acres, according to officials.

Located at the south end of the Salton Sea, near the community of Westmorland, the expansion project aims to create a network of ponds and wetlands, provide a habitat for fish and birds that visit the Salton Sea, and suppress dust within the project area.

The expansion project is just part of ongoing work. The Salton Sea Management Program — which is comprised of the California Natural Resources Agency, the California Department of Water Resources and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife — is implementing a 10-year plan to improve the conditions around the sea by constructing 29,800 acres of habitat and dust suppression projects while aiming to establish a long-term pathway for the Salton Sea’s success.

"Our largest project at the Salton Sea to suppress dust and restore habitat is getting bigger," said Wade Crowfoot, Secretary for the California Natural Resources Agency. "The Biden-Harris Administration and our Congressional delegation delivered major funding to get this done, and it’s another step forward at the Sea. I’m proud of our partnerships and progress, while we all know much more work lies ahead."