Salton Sea Restoration Projects

About the Salton Sea

As a model of biodiversity, the Salton Sea offers visitors a variety of activities including boating, hiking, camping, fishing, bird-watching and hunting. It has 376 square miles of surface area, making it the largest lake in California. It plays an important role in the nearby agriculture industry. Scientists predict that the sea's rapidly increasing salt content could eventually kill off the large fish population, which provides food for birds. That in turn could cause the death of most of the bird population in the area. The Salton Sea Authority, the U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and other state and federal agencies have undertaken large- scale programs designed to restore wildlife.

In a joint operation between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Salton Sea Authority, the bird population has grown substantially due to early recognition and treatment of birds with health problems. More than 5,000 endangered brown and American white pelicans have been rehabilitated and released into the wild since the program began in 1996.

The Salton Sea Authority partnered with the Salton City Community Services District in 2001 to clean up the massive amounts of dead fish that washed up to the shoreline. The odors caused by the dead fish have been significantly reduced. The authority has also hired a private company, Environmental Recovery Solutions, to remove dead fish from the surface of the Salton Sea.

A Salton Sea Authority pilot project is aimed at reducing the damaging nutrients that flow to the sea. The nutrients cause algal "bloom," also known as euthrophication, which causes fish die-off. Water flowing from the Whitewater River to the sea is diverted to shallow ponds where algae is harvested, and also eaten by tilapia introduced to the ponds. Salt is being reduced using enhanced evaporators. Another pilot project uses waste energy to cause evaporation in order to remove excess salt from the sea.