Case Description

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Geolocation:	33° 13' 54.8518", -115° 42' 32.6905"
Total Population	1.51,500,000 millionmillion
Total Area	21,70021,700 km² 8,378.37 mi² km²
Climate Descriptors	Arid/desert (Köppen B-type)
Predominent Land Use Descriptors	agricultural- cropland and pasture, conservation lands
Important Uses of Water	Agriculture or Irrigation, Domestic/Urban Supply, Other Ecological Services

Summary

Natural, Historic, Economic, Regional, and Political Framework

Issues and Stakeholders

Water scarcity and overuse due to population growth

NSPD: Water Quantity
Stakeholder Types: Sovereign state/national/federal government, Environmental interest

The QSA was developed and implemented because of the increasing populations in California and neighboring states. California was repeatedly overusing their share from the Colorado River to meet the demand of the growing population in the southern parts of the state. Population growth and water scarcity were driving factors for the creation of the QSA.

The water transfer arrangements made in the QSA are potentially highly problematic for the maintenance of the Salton Sea as it is sustained almost entirely through agricultural runoff from the Imperial Valley. One of the water transfer deals included in the agreement involves 400,000 acre-feet of water being transferred from agricultural areas in the Imperial Valley to the coast of southern California, effectively reducing the inflow to the Salton Sea by 360,000 fewer acre-feet per year (Forsman, 2014). Although the water scarcity issue has been temporarily resolved for the residents of urban southern California, the issue has been shifted east to the Imperial Valley. To mitigate for the loss of agricultural runoff, IID is required to replenish the Salton Sea with about 32 billion gallons of water per year for the first 15 years of the agreement- after which they are no longer legally required to supplement the Sea (Cohen, 2014).

Uncertain restoration plan

NSPD: Water Quality, Ecosystems
Stakeholder Types: Sovereign state/national/federal government, Environmental interest, Community or organized citizens

When the California water transfer deal was made in 2003, it included roughly $300 million for restoration projects and the California State Legislature agreed that the State of California would undertake the restoration of the Salton Sea (Horowitz, 2012); however, although the California Resources Agency produced the Salton Sea Ecosystem Restoration Study as required by the agreement, no decision regarding the restoration plans proposed has been made by the Legislature (Case et al., 2013). The water supplementation deal ends in 2017 and the fate of the restoration of the Salton Sea remains unclear. If no action is taken, not only will economic value and critical habitat decrease with increased salinity levels, but when the sea evaporates, it is projected that the toxic sediment on the bottom of the lake will become air born as toxic dust creating a major public health concern (Horowitz, 2012). In addition, blowing dust and the deteriorating natural environment are expected to cause property values to decrease in the area by a cumulative $400 million dollars (Cohen, 2014).

Decreasing water quality

NSPD: Water Quantity
Stakeholder Types: Sovereign state/national/federal government, Environmental interest, Community or organized citizens

As the salinity levels continue to rise, the aquatic community within the Salton Sea will become less diverse and entire groups of animals, such as fish, will disappear (Case et al., 2013). In some projections, the Sea will have too high of a salt content to support fish in the next five to seven years and over the next 15 years, salinity is projected to triple (Cohen, 2014). As a result, bird communities will be affected on a regional and international scale. In addition to the irreplaceable loss of critical habitat and biodiversity, increased salinity of this proportion will result in an economic loss of the recreational opportunities directly provided by the ecosystems such as fishing and birdwatching.

Decreasing air quality and toxic dust

NSPD: Ecosystems
Stakeholder Types: Sovereign state/national/federal government, Environmental interest, Community or organized citizens

The surface of the Salton Sea is expected to shrink by 100 and 150 square miles by 2030 and 2045, respectively, exposing a similar amount of lakebed dust; in some areas (e.g., the southern shoreline) the lake will recede by five miles (Cohen, 2014). When the lakebed is exposed, airborne particulate matter is produced; some estimates project that the exposed lakebed could produce as much as 100-215 tons per day by the mid-2030s (Cohen, 2014; Forsman, 2014). Not only will this reduce air quality, but particulate matter, when inhaled, can cause serious health problems such as asthma and decreased lung function. The health care-related costs of high dust emissions could rise from $360 million in 2014 to as high as $2,000 million per year in 2035 (Cohen, 2014).

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