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Imperial County issues Salton Sea air pollution violations

Receding shoreline of the Salton Sea.
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June 24, 2020 4:41 PM
Published 12:06 PM

IMPERIAL COUNTY, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - The Imperial County Air pollution Control District issued SEVEN citations to the Imperial Irrigation District and U.S. Fish and Wildlife... for failure to implement adequate dust control on the Salton Sea IN the Red Hill Bay Project.

The Red Hill Bay project is a partnership between Fish and Wildlife and IID meant to restore and improve the quality of wetland habitatS to conditions similar to the Salton Sea shoreline from many decades ago.

The citation amount will be determined once the agencies begin to comply.

“This particular project has been in construction for since about 2016 and the dust control plan for it obviously isn’t being implemented at this point,” said Katie Burnworth, APC Special Projects Coordinator.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service got a citation for Conformity.... a federal clean air act violation.

“What they kind of did was they took a project that was supposed to mitigate the dust and alleviate some of the habitat issues from the Salton Sea and they started construction and their construction made the area worse," said Burnworth.

Burnworth says that the Salton Sea emissions could cause irreversible damages.

“So if the Salton Sea keeps the rate of exposing emissions that come off the Salton Sea continues to be unmitigated that would put us in nonattainment. So essentially our cup of emissions is already full so if we keep adding the emissions it's going to overflow.”

Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia has focused his legislative advocacy towards the Salton Sea and New River in active coordination with regional partners. 

The California Legislature voted to approve and send to Governor Newsom their 2020 state budget proposal Monday, June 15 that would include a budget for cleaning the Salton Sea.

“This is an environmental issue that’s been brewing in our backyard you know and it affects us I mean myself I have a son who has asthma and respiratory issues as well do other people do in our office so air quality is something we’re passionate about," she said.

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Gianella Ghiglino

Peruvian-born and LA raised Gianella Ghiglino joins the team from the San Fernando valley. “LA is the place that taught me how to breath and Peru is my breath.” She says she was inspired by the community she grew up in and began documenting her experience through poetry at the age of 7. “I wrote about everything I saw, felt and everything that inspired me.” When she entered High School she joined her school news station and realized that broadcast journalism allowed her to pursue her passion and her purpose all at once. Gianella attended Cal State Northridge and received a Bachelors degree in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Spanish Broadcast Journalism, and Political Science. She did several internships while in College but most notably interned for PBS’s local LA station for three years. “My purpose is to share my story and of those in my community, my passion is writing.”

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