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Deputy Secretary of the Interior Tommy Beaudreau Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Tanya Trujillo U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton

Dear Deputy Secretary Beaudreau, Assistant Secretary Trujillo, and Commissioner Touton: Thank you for your leadership and collaboration as we work together to stabilize the Colorado River Basin amidst an unprecedented, climate change-driven drought stretching over two decades.

Given dire drought conditions across the region and dangerously low reservoir levels, we firmly believe that all water users within the Basin must take immediate voluntary actions to stabilize water supplies in the Basin’s major reservoirs.

California water agencies that utilize Colorado River water supplies propose to conserve up to an additional 400,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Mead each year, beginning in 2023 and running through 2026. This water, which would otherwise be used by California’s communities and farms, will meaningfully contribute to stabilizing the Colorado River reservoir system.

We have identified a collection of proposed water conservation and water use reduction opportunities that would yield approximately 400,000 acre-feet of System Conservation water supplies that could be retained in Lake Mead each year through 2026.

California’s Colorado River water agencies are also prepared to create and store additional quantities of Intentionally Created Surplus water supplies in Lake Mead pursuant to the 2007 Interim Shortage Guidelines, under future favorable hydrologic and water supply conditions. In order to enable this water conservation, our agencies will need to utilize funding opportunities provided by the Inflation Reduction Act and other federal programs.

Each of the California agencies involved in developing this package of proposed conserved water supplies will also require your support in developing agreements for funding, potential intra- and inter- state coordination, water use accounting, and in obtaining necessary board and agency approvals over the coming weeks and months.

The State of California and its Colorado River agencies appreciate the collaboration of the Department of the Interior and Reclamation to stabilize the Salton Sea, which has been shrinking due to California’s existing water conservation actions and will further shrink when additional conservation actions are taken.

Voluntary water conservation actions outlined in this letter depends on a clear federal commitment to contribute meaningfully to stabilization efforts at the Salton Sea. California has long been a leader in water conservation within the Colorado River Basin, including through the nation’s largest agricultural to urban water conservation and transfer program, the Quantification Settlement Agreement, and through billions of dollars in investments in agricultural and urban water conservation.

In fact, through a variety of activities, California’s water agencies have voluntarily conserved nearly 2.0 million acre-feet of water supplies in Lake Mead since 2007 that has added more than twenty feet to Lake Mead elevations and aided other Lower Basin water users from experiencing previously agreed upon shortage reductions that would have otherwise occurred as early as 2015. Most recently, our water agencies have been committed to constructive participation in discussions among the basin states that began even before to the Commissioner’s call in June for urgent voluntary water conservation. While a broad multi-state agreement to conserve water across the Basin has not been reached, the California agencies propose to take voluntary action now to conserve water in coming months.

It is California’s intention that this proactive voluntary action builds on existing agreements, contracts, compacts, and water rights to catalyze broader basin-wide conservation and helps to avoid protracted litigation that might otherwise result from regulatory or mandated actions. California and its Colorado River agencies believe that it is imperative for the Department of the Interior and Reclamation to immediately reengage the seven Basin States, Tribes, and Mexico in efforts to identify additional water conservation and water use reduction activities to stabilize the Colorado River reservoir system. Additionally, California and the agencies look forward to working with you and others across the Basin with respect to the administrative actions identified in Reclamation’s August 16, 2022, News Release.

Sincerely,

CC: California Secretary for Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot California Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth Colorado River Basin States Principals

 

ORIGINAL DOCUMENT

 

Southern California could be the Middle East of this century. Companies are scrambling to get at the mineral stew bubbling beneath the Sonoran Desert.

By BROOKE STAGGS | bstaggs@scng.com | Orange County Register – dailybulletin.com

 

Those drawn to the other-wordly landscape surrounding the Salton Sea, some 45 minutes southeast of Palm Springs, have long been lured by potential.

Potential to plant crops that help feed the country or solar panels to help power it in the wide open, affordable land in Imperial County. Potential to pursue bohemian, artistic lives in Bombay Beach or nearby Slab City. Potential to spot migratory birds who make their temporary home at this largest lake in California.

That potential hasn’t always panned out. With both local and imported water scarce, farmers sometimes are paid to keep their fields fallow. The solar industry hasn’t delivered the once-promised jobs or a huge spike in land values. And there are regular reports of massive bird and fish die-offs, with the sand of some lakeside beaches made from the bones of fish that couldn’t survive the shallow, salty lake’s oxygen-deprived waters.

But now, everyone from General Motors to the U.S. Department of Energy to Warren Buffet seems to believe the Salton Sea’s greatest potential so far remains untapped: its potential to become known the world over as Lithium Valley.

Demand for lithium has skyrocketed over the past 30 years, since the world’s lightest metal also happens to be fantastic at storing energy. Lithium’s ability to quickly charge, recharge and transfer lots of energy has made it the primary component in batteries for everything from laptops to pacemakers to cell phones. Now, lithium is the material of choice for batteries to store solar and wind energy — and to power electric vehicles.

Tens of millions of EV batteries soon will be needed each year. In August, California announced a plan to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles starting in 2035, and more than a dozen states are expected to follow suit. And federal lawmakers have passed several funding packages that also push consumers and car manufacturers toward EVs, with countries around the world pursuing similar goals.

Unfortunately, lithium isn’t particularly abundant or easy to get at. So the growing demand has triggered a geopolitical scramble — sometimes called a “white gold rush,” in reference to lithium’s silvery-white color — to find new, cost effective ways to source the material.

That’s where the Salton Sea Geothermal Field comes in.

Researchers believe there may be enough lithium bubbling a mile or more beneath the desert adjacent to the sea to meet domestic needs for the foreseeable future. They believe there might even be enough lithium left over that the U.S. could export the prized material to other countries.

Some locals remain understandably skeptical. But experts working on these plans insist the type of lithium extraction operations they’re eyeing, which aren’t yet happening anywhere in the world, present few environmental problems while offering significant economic potential for the region.

SOURCE: News Channel 3 – kesq

As of today, it’s not clear if there’s a cause for concern over any toxic algae blooms at the Salton Sea.

The California State Water Resources Control Board has yet to release test results from samples submitted by Imperial County Environmental Health officials this week.

The state works with Riverside and Imperial counties to manage the Salton Sea, as the waterway spans across both counties.

As of June 30 2022, there were “no new observations made of the bloom for 30 days”, according to the State Water Resources Control Board.

The alert noted “observations of scum and surface accumulation of algal material present at this site indicating elevated health risk to humans and animals. Surface accumulations may become stranded along shoreline, children and dogs should avoid contact.”

It also noted “the exact location, extent and toxicity of the reported bloom may not be accurate and may not be affecting the entire waterbody,” therefore its recommended the waterbody manager be contacted for current conditions since “the bloom may still be present or may have subsided.”

County environmental officials partner with the state to help advise the public in the surrounding community if a toxic algae bloom is detected.

“The last time we posted signage was in mid-July, so the detection would’ve been the week prior,” said Vanessa Ramirez, Environmental Health Compliance Specialist for Imperial County.

However, unless testing is conducted, county officials don’t always know whether or not toxic algae is present at the Salton Sea. If a potential harmful algal bloom is observed and reported, then county officials will visit the site and conduct an investigation to make a determination.

Currently, the state water managers conduct what’s called holiday testing. “The state water board has a program for Memorial Day, July 4, and for Labor Day. Since we’re local, we’ll go out there on their behalf, do the sampling, and send the sample to the state” for testing, said Vanessa Ramirez, Environmental Health Compliance Specialist for Imperial County.

Depending on the level of danger determined, action is then taken to address the bloom. Those steps can range from putting up signs warning the public to closing waterways for recreational use.

Toxic algae blooms used to be more seasonal, but that’s no longer the case due to a variety of reasons, including warmer temperatures and California’s ongoing drought.

When water recedes, its allows for “an increase in nutrient activity in a particular area,” according to Jeff Lamoure, Deputy Director of Environmental Health for Imperial County.

“You see maybe a concentration of the Cyanotoxins in the water that causes them to bloom more frequently. You’re not having as much water movement because of the receding shorelines, so they’re kind of working together to causes these activities to increase,” added Lamoure.

Existing warnings for people to stay out of the water due to dangerous algae blooms in Lake Elsinore, in western Riverside County, and Big Bear Lake, in San Bernardino County, are prompting growing interest on the current status of algae blooms at the Salton Sea.

The lake, located in southern Riverside and northern Imperial counties, has had a history of toxic algae blooms in previous years.

Exposure to toxic algae blooms can cause severe illness among people and animals, and death among wildlife in some instances.

VIDEO

By Kyle Paoletta

thenation.com

The United States’ century-old ambition to impound and divvy up every drop of water that could be wrung from its most arid stretches began with a flood. A private firm called the California Development Company (CDC) completed a canal in 1901 that zigzagged across the state’s border with Mexico in order to connect the Colorado River to a dry riverbed that aspiring farmers had already begun to section off for themselves, heeding the proclamation by the newly founded Imperial Valley Press that the region constituted “the most fertile body of arid land on the continent.”

Only two years later, the CDC’s canal was filled with silt, and the customers who had paid up-front for rights to water that could no longer be delivered started filing lawsuits. The CDC dug a new ditch next to the original canal, but in its desperation to act quickly, the company neglected to build any means of controlling how much of the river was diverted into this new channel: If the Colorado flooded, the excess water had nowhere to go but toward the Imperial Valley. To make matters worse, 1905 was an unusually wet year, and by autumn the Colorado was flowing with the same force as Niagara Falls. The CDC’s diversion held, but that only served to funnel the entire river downhill into the valley’s center, a vast salt plain then known as the Salton Sink. It would take two years before the river was contained. Once it was, California had a new body of water, the Salton Sea, almost twice the size of Lake Tahoe.

The Salton Sea was formed before the Hoover Dam, before Lake Powell, before the aqueducts that stretch for hundreds of miles across the West. But there were many more new water features on the horizon: The Bureau of Reclamation, created to develop a “system of nationally-aided irrigation for the arid reaches of the far West,” began building dams across the region in the first decade of the 1900s. It also acquired control of many private water schemes in order to subsidize the price of the water delivered to farmers and residents of the future communities that were being built by urban developers.

The West became dependent on these waterworks as soon as they were constructed, even as their forerunner, the Salton Sea, was slowly transforming into a surreal and toxic landmark. The so-called sea’s salinity began to rise as soon as it was formed, because its water evaporated steadily in the unrelenting sunshine. Over the following decades, the lost water began to be replenished by the runoff from the acres of farms and feedlots spreading across its southern edge. But as the basin was refilling, the runoff was turning the Salton Sea into one of the most polluted bodies of water in the West—a lake that gives off a sulfuric stench of eggs and kills migrating birds by the thousands. The western shore, meanwhile, was littered with detritus from weapons testing by the United States military, and along the eastern shore you could find a tourist town called Bombay Beach that would be all but abandoned in the 1970s after being flooded with runoff. Bombay Beach has since found a second life as an artists’ colony that, starting in 2015, has staged a yearly “biennale” that bills itself as a “renegade celebration of art, music, and philosophy that takes place on the literal edge of western civilization.” But everywhere around the Salton Sea, the shoreline is receding, leaving thousands of acres of polluted playa—the earth that remains after the water has evaporated—which, once it becomes airborne on the wind, produces some of the worst asthma rates in California.

See full article

LUIS GOMEZON JULY 26, 2022 – Holtville Tribune

I Imperial Valley— Local farmers may soon be forced to bite the bullet and find ways to use significantly less water in 2023 — potentially for a lot longer.

This drastic measure may come as a result of an emergency water conservation effort to prevent further depletion of the Valley’s main source of water, the Colorado River. If less water flows down the Colorado River, the consequences could be catastrophic for the two reservoirs — lakes Mead and Powell — that feed into the so-called basin states.

For example, if water levels in Lake Mead continue dropping, it could bring water and hydropower to a grinding halt, all due to a relentless drought over two decades.

The Imperial Irrigation District, the largest water agency in California, is nearing final negotiations with Arizona — one of the lower basin states — to see how much water each state will be able to conserve. And the bar is high.

In June, the federal Bureau of Reclamation requested the states, water agencies and Native tribes along the Colorado River basin to propose ways to collectively conserve up to 4 million acre-feet of water in 2023. They must all reach a deal by mid-August.

How this will impact the farmers who rely on the Colorado River to grow their crops and sustain the principal economic engine of the Imperial Valley can perhaps be better understood through the various ways the Imperial Irrigation District distributes water throughout the region, and how farmers make do with a persistent drought that seems to have no end.

Measuring Water

How much is an acre foot of water?

Water, in general, is measured by the acre-foot, meaning that one acre-foot covers an acre of land one foot deep. One acre-foot of water equals about 326,000 gallons, enough to supply a family of four or five for one year.

How much does the Imperial Valley get?

The IID is allocated 3.1 million acre-feet of water, of which some 500,000 acre-feet of water are transferred to other agencies including the Metropolitan Water District, San Diego County Water Authority, and the Coachella Valley Water District.

The remaining 2.5 million acre-feet of water are then distributed to farmers, residents and businesses throughout the Imperial Valley each year.

How much of it goes to farmers and how much to residents?

Of the 2.5 million acre-feet of water that does get distributed within the Imperial Valley, some 21,631 acre-feet of water is distributed to industrial and commercial users while some 32,580 acre-feet of water is distributed to residents.

In short, 97.8 percent of water goes to agriculture while just over 2 percent goes to residential, industrial and commercial users.

COMPLETE ARTICLE

Katie Brigham – Wednesday – CNBC

About 40 miles north of the California-Mexico border lies the shrinking, landlocked lake known as the Salton Sea. Though the lake was once the epicenter of a thriving resort community, water contamination and decades of drought have contributed to a collapse of its once-vibrant ecosystem and given rise to ghost towns.

But amid this environmental disaster, the California Energy Commission estimates that there’s enough lithium here to meet all of the United States’ projected future demand and 40% of the world’s demand. That’s big news for the booming electric-vehicle industry, as lithium is the common denominator across all types of EV batteries.

Traditionally, lithium extraction involves either open-pit mining or evaporation ponds, which work by pumping lithium-containing brine to the surface and waiting for the water to dry up. Both of these methods have huge land footprints, are often very water intensive and can create a lot of contamination and waste.

But at the Salton Sea, three companies are developing chemical processes to extract lithium in a much cleaner way, taking advantage of the Salton Sea’s rich geothermal resources. Near the lake, there are already 11 operating geothermal power plants, 10 of which are owned by Berkshire Hathaway’s renewable energy division, BHE Renewables.

“We are already pumping 50,000 gallons of brine per minute across all of our 10 geothermal facilities to the surface,” said Alicia Knapp, president and CEO of BHE Renewables, “and we’re using the steam from that brine to generate clean energy. So we’re really halfway there in that we’ve got the lithium right here in our hands.”

Two other companies, EnergySource and Controlled Thermal Resources, or CTR, are also developing joint geothermal-lithium facilities at the Salton Sea, and General Motors has already committed to source lithium from CTR.

This new industry could be a major economic boon to the region, where the majority Mexican-American community faces high rates of unemployment and poverty and suffers health impacts from the toxic dust that blows off the Salton Sea’s drying lake bed.

“We’re cautiously excited in regards to the Lithium Valley,” said Maria Nava-Froelich, the mayor pro tem of Calipatria, California, the city of about 6,000 where the geothermal power plants are located. “We see it as a game changer here for Imperial County.”

Nava-Froelich hopes the industry will bring much-needed jobs and development to the region, helping to revitalize communities that have seen an exodus of young people seeking opportunities elsewhere. And environmentalists hope that the influx of attention and money will hasten California’s efforts to restore the environment in and around the Salton Sea.

If ever there were a time to bet on domestic mineral projects, it might be now. At the end of March, President Joe Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to boost production of EV battery minerals such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and manganese.

But extracting lithium from geothermal brines has never been done before at scale, so it remains to be seen whether the electric-vehicle industry, the local community and/or the environment will actually benefit.

Lithium Valley

This isn’t the first time there’s been interest in lithium recovery at the Salton Sea. Hyped start-up Simbol Materials developed a demonstration plant, but the company ceased operations in 2015 after a failed acquisition attempt by Tesla and never developed a commercial-scale facility.

Since then, demand for lithium has shot up and, after falling sharply in 2018, prices are surging once again, incentivizing projects that might not have been economical before. If the current trio of companies can prove their technology works, they stand to make a lot of money from the hundreds of thousands of tons of lithium in the area.

“The Salton Sea field, fully developed, could well serve over 600,000 tons a year, when the world production is less than 400 [thousand] now,” said Rod Colwell, CEO of CTR.

Unlike Berkshire Hathaway and EnergySource, CTR doesn’t have any geothermal power plants in the region, so it’s building a joint geothermal and lithium recovery facility all at once. Currently, the company is constructing a demonstration plant and plans to open its first full-scale facility by the beginning of 2024, providing 20,000 tons of lithium to GM.

Colwell estimates that CTR’s first plant will cost just shy of $1 billion, a steeper price per ton of lithium than many traditional lithium recovery projects. But all three companies expect that price to drop as the technology develops further.

CTR is using ion-exchange technology, which it developed in partnership with Bay Area-based Lilac Solutions, to recover lithium. In this method, geothermal brine flows through tanks filled with ceramic beads, which absorb lithium from the brine. When the beads are saturated, the lithium is flushed out with hydrochloric acid, and lithium chloride remains. This is an intermediary product that CTR plans to refine on-site, yielding lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide, a powder that’s ready to be processed and transformed into precursor chemicals and then manufactured into battery cells.

Berkshire Hathaway is also using ion-exchange technology, though the company hasn’t revealed as many specifics as CTR about how it will work.

EnergySource has developed technology known as Integrated Lithium Adsorption Desorption, or ILiAD, and it’s jumping straight into building a full-scale facility, which it expects to be operational by 2024.

“What we see in terms of production costs is that geothermal brine should be around the first quartile in terms of market competitiveness,” said Derek Benson, CEO of EnergySource.

Notably, all three companies plan to refine the lithium on-site, a process that normally takes place overseas. But the companies aren’t equipped to handle additional steps, such as chemical processing and battery cell manufacturing, which still primarily take place in Asia.

“The rest of the supply chain hopefully in the coming years will also be developed in the U.S.,” said Knapp, “so that we’re able to go straight from lithium and other minerals in the ground to batteries that we’re using to run our infrastructure.”

EV battery maker Italvolt recently announced plans to launch a new company, Statevolt, with the intent to build a $4 billion gigafactory in Imperial Valley that would produce enough lithium-ion batteries for 650,000 electric vehicles per year. Statevolt signed a letter of intent to source lithium and geothermal power from CTR, but did not respond to CNBC’s inquiry about whether it will do chemical processing on-site.