Tuesday October 1, 2024
KPBS —
One of the nation’s oldest environmental groups is suing Imperial County’s powerful water agency over a recent deal meant to help conserve the parched Colorado River.
Under the terms of the deal, the Imperial Irrigation District, or IID, will try to cut back its consumption of Colorado River water by 750,000 acre feet over the next three years. In return, the agency and farmers who conserve water could receive more than $600 million from the federal Bureau of Reclamation.
But those cutbacks will also reduce the amount of water flowing into the Salton Sea, which is slowly drying up. That could accelerate the release of harmful particles into the air from the exposed lakebed, according to the Bureau of Reclamation’s own environmental assessment of the deal.
That’s led the Sierra Club to challenge the deal, arguing it violates state law and puts residents along the Salton Sea in greater danger of breathing in toxic, chemical-laden dust.