Effort to restore the Salton Sea moving forward

An effort to renovate a small corner of the Salton Sea is moving forward near Calipatria at the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge.

The sea is in trouble, slowly evaporating as it’s water sources are being diverted.

If allowed to dry up completely the shrinking sea could damage the Coachella Valley’s desert environment, health and economy.

An excavator has been working it’s way across a parched dry salt-crusted lake bed for three months now.

The Red Hill Bay project was started in November, a cooperative effort by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge, along with the state Department of Water Resources, Imperial County and state and local agencies.

If successful, this 420 acre wetlands restoration project at the Salton Sea may lead to more similar projects at California’s largest and most troubled body of water.

The $3.5 million dollar project will prevent dust while providing a restored bird habitat at the southern end of the Salton Sea.

The excavator is using soil from a ditch in the lake bed to build miles of levy across the same lake.

It will be dry on one side of the levy walls- wet on the other and a perfect habitat for hundreds of species of birds.

Chris Schoneman from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the goal is to bring wildlife back while restoring the Red Hill Bay Marina with a mix of Salton Sea water blended with irrigation runoff water to make it less salty.

The water will only be a few inches deep, just enough for birds to thrive.

Schoneman said, “We’re going to roughly have about five to six miles of levy in here with a set of pumps back in the corner.”

If successful this effort could be a model for other more realistic restoration projects at the Salton Sea, an essential migration stop along the Pacific Flyway.

Millions of birds stop here to rest.

The work continues now to improve this habitat, scoop by salt-crusted scoop.

“We’ve been pleasantly surprised about the qualities of the soils for building berms,” said Schoneman. “It’s actually going a little easier than we thought it could be,” Schoneman added.

The dig will continue throughout the year.

And the dry lake bed should be under a few inches of water again by this time next year, barring any great setbacks or challenges.