FORUM: Salton Sea's fate should concern all
By: Marion Ashley and Gary Wyatt

In response to the Jan. 19 editorial, "Water ruling is all wet":

San Diego County residents, like all of us in Southern California, rely just as much on a complex system of water rights and environmental conditions to deliver our water as we rely on the canals and pipelines that bring it to our taps. Among these conditions is the obligation to sustain the Salton Sea. The 370-square-mile briny lake requires water from the Colorado River to keep its unique ecosystem going ---- water that could be used by San Diego, Southern California, Nevada, Arizona and Mexico.

But the issues surrounding the Salton Sea require more thought and creativity that just wishing that the sea would go away. Along Highway 395 on the eastern slope of the Sierras, the Owens Lake nearly dried up after the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power diverted the Owens River for use by Los Angeles residents. The resulting exposure of the dry lake bed was catastrophic. Arsenic-infused dust blew up and down the valley, creating an environmental disaster that has still not been fully solved, and associated legal challenges, air quality fines and mitigation costs may approach $1 billion.

If allowed to dry up, the Salton Sea, a lake that is four times the size of Owens Lake, could create an air quality disaster for California, with legal and mitigation costs dwarfing what the Los Angeles water department must pay. By not preserving the sea, which is part of the Pacific Flyway, the state will be in violation of an international Migratory Bird Treaty.

Beyond that, billions of dollars in farming, tourism and real estate interests are threatened by dust blowing over the Coachella Valley from a dry sea bed. Estimates have indicated that dust may affect the health of residents from the Mexican border to Joshua Tree, and from Phoenix to Oceanside.

We, as California residents, are obligated to work together and find collaborative, creative solutions to preserving a viable Salton Sea or pay the costs in both dollars and environmental and public health.

Wishing the sea would dry up ultimately leaves the future of all Southern Californians blowing in the wind.

MARION ASHLEY is chairman of the Salton Sea Authority as well as a Riverside County supervisor. GARY WYATT is an authority board member and Imperial County supervisor.