Salton Sea Reclamation Act of 1998

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) | January 27th, 1998

Salton Sea Restoration Fund The State Has Not Fully Funded a Restoration Plan and the State’s Future Mitigation Costs Are Uncertain

California State Auditor | November 1st, 2013

The Salton Sea, located in Riverside and Imperial counties in Southern California, is the State’s largest inland lake. The Salton Sea was formed in 1905 when Colorado

The Salton Sea, located in Riverside and Imperial counties in Southern California, is the State’s largest inland lake. The Salton Sea was formed in 1905 when Colorado River floodwater breached an irrigation canal being constructed in the Imperial Valley; it has since been primarily fed by agricultural drain water. According to experts, the Salton Sea serves as an important fishery and wildlife habitat and is a major stopping point for migratory birds along the Pacific flyway. However, beginning in 2003, a series of agreements know collectively as the Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA), between the State, local water agencies, and other entities have required, among other things, a water transfer that has reduced the amount of water that flows into the Salton Sea (water transfer). To mitigate the effects of the water transfer, the QSA requires one of the local water agencies that is a party to the agreement to provide additional water (mitigation water) to the Salton Sea for 15 years, from 2003 to 2017. Experts anticipate that when the Salton Sea stops receiving this mitigation water, the water transfer will cause profound negative environmental impacts, including the loss of fishery habitat, exposure of soils to wind erosion, and declines in bird species because of the loss of food.

Salton Sea Study Status Report

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) | January 9th, 2003

The Salton Sea is located in a closed basin in Riverside and Imperial Counties in southern California, south of Indio and north of El Centro. The Sea is situated

The Salton Sea is located in a closed basin in Riverside and Imperial Counties in southern California, south of Indio and north of El Centro. The Sea is situated in a closed basin, more than 200 feet below sea level and has no natural outlet. Although lakes have existed in this basin in the past, the current body of water formed in 1905 when a levee break along the Colorado River caused flows from the Colorado River to enter the basin for about 18 months. Since 1905, the Sea has fluctuated in size with varying inflow, and it recently has had a surface area of 365 square miles. A balance between inflowing water and evaporation sustains the Sea. With no outlet, any salts that are dissolved in the inflow are trapped, although some do precipitate. Salt concentrations are currently about 44,000 milligrams per liter (mg/L), or about 25 percent higher than ocean water. Salinity will continue to rise under current conditions. It is highly likely that in the future, the inflow to the Sea will be less than it has been in the past. A reduction in inflow would cause the Sea to shrink and cause salinity to rise faster than it would have without a reduction in inflow. A gradual increase in salinity and its consequences was recognized soon after the Sea was formed. Formulation of salinity control measures was reported as early as the mid-1950s. Since then, many alternatives have been proposed and analyzed. The alternatives presented in this report were developed to address the goals contained in the Salton Sea Reclamation Act of 1998. The Act directs the Secretary of the Interior to study options for managing the salinity and elevation of the Sea in order to preserve fish and wildlife health and enhance opportunities for recreation use and economic development while continuing the Sea’s use as a reservoir for irrigation drainage. The Act required that certain options be analyzed and required consideration of reduced inflows down to 800,000 acre-feet or less per year. Consideration of any option that included importation of water from the Colorado River was prohibited. Reporting requirements of the Act were met on January 27, 2000, when Secretary Babbit forwarded a draft EIS/EIR and several other reports to Congress. Since then, analyses have continued on options presented in those reports and on new options. The development and transmission of this report is not required by law. This report provides a summary of the current status of the evaluation of alternatives currently under consideration. The primary purpose of the planning study was to evaluate possible methods of controlling the salinity and elevation of the Sea. The study also includes elements that address other issues at the Sea, such as high levels of nutrients. Fourteen alternatives providing a range of salinity and elevation control benefits and costs are presented in this report. For ease of presentation and understanding, alternatives were divided into the following categories: Salinity control alternatives Salinity and elevation control alternatives Causeway/barrier alternatives (the terms causeway and barrier are interchangeable in this report) Specialized diking alternatives Methods to control salinity and elevation include pumping water out of the Sea with discharge to some remote location; pumping water out of the Sea with discharge to local desalting plants or evaporation ponds, possibly in combination with enhanced evaporation systems that would require disposal of salt residues near or within the Sea; and dividing the Sea through the construction of dikes so that one portion serves to concentrate and isolate salts from the remainder of the Sea. Each alternative is discussed briefly below. The present value cost estimates for each alternative are also mentioned below. Present value cost includes the initial construction cost plus funds that would need to be set aside today to fund operation, maintenance, and energy over a 30-year period. This status report makes no recommendation regarding future action relating to restoration of the Salton Sea. In fact, given that all of the alternatives identified to date are extremely expensive, it is difficult, if not impossible, to make any recommendation without a decision by Congress regarding the relative importance of the Sea in light of other pressing national priorities.

Sampling and Analysis Plan for 2016 RMP Status and Trends Bird Egg Monitoring

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | February 1st, 2016

The samples will be collected by staff at the USGS Western Ecological Research Center [USGS-WERC] who will procure all necessary egg collection permits. Eggs will then be

The samples will be collected by staff at the USGS Western Ecological Research Center [USGS-WERC] who will procure all necessary egg collection permits. Eggs will then be analyzed for: ● Total mercury (THg) (cormorant eggs at Moss Landing Marine Laboratory-Marine Pollution Studies Lab [MLML-MPSL]; tern eggs at USGS-WERC),  ● Selenium (cormorant and tern eggs at MLML-MPSL),  ● PCBs (cormorant eggs at the California Department of Fish & Wildlife’s Water Pollution Control Laboratory [DFW-WPCL]),  ● PBDEs (cormorant eggs at DFW-WPCL) (NOTE: PBDE analysis in tern eggs was discontinued due to increased USGS costs),  ● PFCs and precursors (cormorant eggs at AXYS Analytical Laboratories), and  ● Halogenated carbazoles (cormorant eggs at Southern Illinois University) NOTE: Carbazole analyses will be done pro bono by SIU for research purposes. Carbazoles are not part of the RMP Status and Trends design. SIU will not measure percent moisture in its samples. Therefore, it is important to make sure that sample weights, prior to analysis, are accurately measured since we will be applying the percent moisture values from other laboratories to their samples. Available data will be used to back-calculate fresh wet weight values for these samples. 

Sampling and Analysis Plan for Microplastic Monitoring in San Francisco Bay and Adjacent National Marine Sanctuaries

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | May 31st, 2017

Plastic in the ocean, and more specifically microplastic (particles <5 mm), has been gaining global attention as a pervasive and preventable threat to the health of m

Plastic in the ocean, and more specifically microplastic (particles <5 mm), has been gaining global attention as a pervasive and preventable threat to the health of marine ecosystems. Microplastic is ingested by marine organisms (Wright et al. 2013), and may impact their physiological processes (von Moos et al. 2012; Cole et al. 2013, 2015; Rochman et al. 2013, 2014b; Wright et al. 2013; Watts et al. 2015; Lu et al. 2016; Sussarellu et al. 2016). Microplastic may also contain harmful chemicals such as flame retardants, plasticizers, or dyes (Browne et al. 2013; Fries et al. 2013; Rochman et al. 2013, 2014 a,b), and may provide a substrate for the adsorption of other harmful chemicals in the ocean, like PCBs and DDT (Teuten et al. 2007), which then may be transferred up the food chain (e.g., Farrell and Nelson 2013; Rochman et al. 2014a; Setala et al. 2014). Many scientific questions remain, however, and there is a need for research on the patterns of distribution and uptake of microplastic by organisms in their ocean ecosystems.

San Diego County Ecosystems: Ecological Impacts of Climate Change on a Biodiversity Hotspot

California Energy Commission (CEC) | August 27th, 2018

The diverse ecosystems, habitats, plants, and animals in the San Diego County region will be impacted by climatic shifts in multifold ways due to current and future vari

The diverse ecosystems, habitats, plants, and animals in the San Diego County region will be impacted by climatic shifts in multifold ways due to current and future variability, along with other factors including habitat loss and fragmentation, land use shifts, and changing fire regimes. While home to a major metropolitan area, San Diego County still hosts expanses of native and preserved habitats where management and conservation action could be greatly enhanced through science-based assessments and planning for climate change and increased climate variability. Projections of climate change in the region include warming by 4-9° F on average, and a 15-25% decrease in fall and spring precipitation with an increase in variability resulting in more frequent and intense droughts punctuated by increasingly rare yet extreme precipitation and flooding events. In addition, an increase in fire events and potential lessening of coastal marine influence may also affect San Diego’s ecosystems. Climate warming superimposed upon the pronounced spatially-varying temperature in the San Diego region will likely be associated with range shifts for many species resulting in novel community assemblages and biotic interactions and could create phenological mismatches. More frequent and intense heat waves may disproportionately affect younger age classes and reduce reproductive and survival rates of species sensitive to temperature extremes. With increasingly variable precipitation, drought may occur more frequently due to increased occurrence of dry days and could intensify because of warmer temperatures. Since drought disproportionately affects some species, these projected changes may cause structural changes to ecosystems. Santa Ana winds, occurring during increasingly dry fall months, would create ideal fire conditions. Coastal low clouds and fog along San Diego’s coast buffer this zone from the effects of warming and drying through shading and cooling. Although these marine stratus clouds will remain a presence, future changes in this phenomenon are uncertain. The spatial and temporal scales at which climate variations and change operate must be considered to build resilience into natural systems. Effective conservation actions will need to build on ongoing efforts focused on landscape-scale planning rather than more traditional single-species approaches. To carry this out will require cross-jurisdictional, multidisciplinary collaboration by scientists, policy-makers, planners, land managers, and the broader conservation community, which has a decades-long history of accomplishment in San Diego County.

San Francisco Bay Interim Model Validation Report

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | December 1st, 2017

As part of the Nutrient Management Strategy, a coupled hydrodynamic-biogeochemical model of San Francisco Bay is being developed. The process-based, numerical model will

As part of the Nutrient Management Strategy, a coupled hydrodynamic-biogeochemical model of San Francisco Bay is being developed. The process-based, numerical model will be used to inform nutrient management decisions, by: • improving quantitative understanding of processes that shape current conditions, • forecasting ecosystem response under future scenarios, and • evaluating potential effectiveness of management actions. This report describes the model in its present configuration and the status of its validation. Model development is necessarily an iterative process, with early stages focused on refining the model’s representation of hydrodynamics and transport, and later stages of the effort including increasingly complex representations of biogeochemistry. Present validation efforts focus on assessing model skill with respect to hydrodynamics, salinity and transport. The final report will additionally consider model validation of water quality and biogeochemical processes.

San Francisco Bay Triennial Bird Egg Monitoring Program for Contaminants, California—2018

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | May 23rd, 2019

The Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP), administered by the San Francisco Estuary Institute, is a large-scale effort to monitor cont

The Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP), administered by the San Francisco Estuary Institute, is a large-scale effort to monitor contaminant trends in water, sediment, fish, and birds throughout San Francisco Bay (San Francisco Estuary Institute, 2016). As part of the RMP and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) long-term Wildlife Contaminants Program, the USGS samples double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) and Forster’s tern (Sterna forsteri) eggs throughout the San Francisco Bay approximately every 3 years to assess temporal trends in contaminant concentrations. This sampling has previously been carried out by USGS in 2009, 2012, and 2016. This document summarizes egg collections for 2018, as well as mercury concentrations in Forster’s tern eggs on an individual egg basis. These data are available in a USGS data release (Ackerman and others, 2019).

San Francisco Bay: A Freshwater Starved Estuary

Bay Institute | September 1st, 2016

How Reducing Flows Harms the Ecosystems of San Francisco Bay and Coastal Waters The Bay Institute’s major new study, San Francisco Bay: The Freshwater – Starved Estu

How Reducing Flows Harms the Ecosystems of San Francisco Bay and Coastal Waters The Bay Institute’s major new study, San Francisco Bay: The Freshwater – Starved Estuary, documents how the ecological health of San Francisco Bay and the nearby ocean is at high risk because large-scale water diversion in the Bay’s watershed severely limits the amount of fresh water that reaches the Bay and alters the timing of that flow. Inflow to the Bay from its Central Valley watershed now averages less than half of what it would be without diversions; in some years just one-third of the runoff makes it to the Bay. The result is a nearly permanent drought for the Bay’s fish, wildlife, and their habitats. This radical alteration creates severe consequences for the Bay and marine ecosystems – and Bay Area residents pay the price. The study shows how unsustainable diversion of the Bay’s freshwater inflow: Dramatically cuts production of fish and shrimp that are the food source for marine mammals, like Orca Whales, and birds; Allows pollutants to accumulate to dangerous levels and encourages blooms of toxic algae; Reduces sediment supply to Bay Area wetlands and beaches; Makes it easier for undesirable non-native species to successfully invade the Bay Estuary. The San Francisco Bay Estuary is created by the mixing of fresh water from the Central Valley’s rivers with salt water from the Pacific Ocean. Dramatically reducing the inflow of fresh water generates cascading effects in the Bay’s watershed, the Bay itself, and coastal ocean waters. The report’s major findings include: On average, since 1975 more than half (53%) of runoff from the Central Valley watershed has been diverted, stored, or exported before it can reach the Bay – and in many years two-thirds or more of the Bay’s inflow is captured; As a result of intensive water diversions, the Bay experiences catastrophically dry years almost half the time (only one “supercritically dry” year occurred naturally between 1975-2014, but the Bay experienced nineteen supercritical years during that period); Numerous unrelated fish species – from sharks to salmon, from sturgeon to smelt – show strong positive correlations with Bay Inflow; many of these species are now endangered, and even commercially viable fisheries are in decline; Predators that feed on flow-dependent fish and shrimp are feeling the pinch – for example, dwindling supplies of Central Valley Chinook salmon may restrict the recovery of the local Orca whale population; Blooms of toxic “algae” (cyanobacteria) are becoming more frequent, and other pollutants are becoming more concentrated, as a result of reductions in freshwater flows from the Bay’s watershed; Bay Area beaches and tidal wetlands are deprived of sediment that was once transported by high river flows. The study reports that local businesses are likely to suffer from the Bay’s continued decline, including those related to commercial fishing and tourism. As our Bay, beaches, wetlands, and fish and wildlife populations deteriorate, the quality of life for many Bay Area residents will also be severely – and perhaps permanently – damaged. The study identifies four important approaches to improving Bay inflows: Update the State’s 21 year old water quality standards for the Bay Estuary to ensure adequate inflow Require all those who divert water destined for the Bay, not just a subset, to contribute their fair share of fresh water to support benefits enjoyed by all Californians Invest in local water supplies around the state including conservation, and recycling, that can generate millions of acre-feet of water and reduce reliance on water diverted from the Estuary and its watershed Coordinate management of flows with wetland and beach restoration to more effectively protect shorelines The study was prepared for the San Francisco Estuary Partnership, a coalition of resource agencies, non-profits, citizens, and scientists working to protect, restore, and enhance water quality and fish and wildlife habitat in and around the San Francisco Bay Delta Estuary, which also provided the majority of funding for the project.

San Francisco Estuary Blueprint 2022

San Francisco Estuary Partnership (SFEP) | September 8th, 2022

In the past few years, the San Francisco Estuary region has confronted epic wildfires, historic rainfall intensity and flooding, and chronic drought. The whiplash of thes

In the past few years, the San Francisco Estuary region has confronted epic wildfires, historic rainfall intensity and flooding, and chronic drought. The whiplash of these events has confirmed that climate change has already begun to impact human and wildlife communities from Sacramento to San Francisco, and beyond. Furthermore, a global COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted regional planning and project implementation everywhere, presenting new challenges to traditional processes and creating an unfamiliar working landscape for resource managers. Finally, the pervasive, horrific violence against Black, Brown, and Asian and Asian-American people has amplified long-term calls for racial justice, galvanizing new commitments to address historic and present inequity through every thread of our social fabric. These events have set the context for the multi-stakeholder process that updates the San Francisco Estuary Blueprint.