Vivien L. Maisonneuve of the Department of Water Resources discusses the State’s Salton Sea Management Program ten-year phase one projects with residents in Brawley on June 22, 2017.

On Wednesday, June 22, the Del Rio Community Center in Brawley was the site of one in a series of public workshops organized by the State to highlight the implementation of the 10-Year Phase I Plan of the Salton Sea Management Program (SSMP). The current slate of workshops represents a second-round of community meetings during which the State is rolling out its restoration concept for the Salton Sea—a phased approach meant to address air quality and provide for habitat. The first round of workshops occurred last summer and fall and at that time the focus was on discussing in more general terms the goals and objectives of the SSMP. Now the State has further developed its initial 10-year program with an

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A photo of an avocado grove owned and operated by Escondido farmer John Burr. He uses micro sprinklers on his groves as one of the tools to help manage water use.

On Friday, June 9, the San Diego County Water Authority’s Colorado River Program (CRP) team had a chance to meet with the San Diego County Farm Bureau and tour an avocado farm tucked in the hillsides of Escondido. It was a fascinating experience to learn what drives San Diego agriculture from the region’s leading crops, to the conservation taking place (and why it takes place), to the kind of technology gaining traction that enables farmers to manage their water.

The CRP team would like to thank Farm Bureau Executive Director Eric Larson and avocado farmer John Burr for their time.

First, a look at the numbers:

San Diego County has 251,000 acres of agricultural land generating $5.1 billion for the economy.
Some

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A tractor plows along the southeastern shore of the Salton Sea as part of the surface roughening pilot project–one of the methods being studied for dust suppression.

Last week, the parties of the Quantification Settlement Agreement Joint Powers Authority—San Diego County Water Authority, Imperial Irrigation District, Coachella Valley Water District, and the State of California—unanimously approved a $25.5 million budget for fiscal year 2018. This is significant in advancing the efforts toward mitigation at the Salton Sea as it relates to the QSA water transfers. The majority of the funding will go toward the final mitigation conservation effort to supply water to the Sea and a new round of proactive air quality projects.

The JPA was established to address an array of environmental mitigation requirements—the Salton Sea among them—as part of the Water Right Order that permitted the implementation of the QSA. The water agencies funding is limited to $133

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