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Showing posts with label Imperial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Imperial. Show all posts

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Solar power plans for CA Desert from the feds and L.A....

Feds Target 1.7% of the land in California for Solar Power facilities (OK, 1.7 million acres), but say much less than that will be used



From the Fed's notice:
In California,  1,766,543 acres of land would be available under the solar energy development program alternative. Four SEZs would be identified: Imperial East (5,722 acres), Iron Mountain (106,522 acres), Pisgah (23,950 acres), and Riverside East (202,896 acres).

Public Comment on the Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Report (PEIS):

The Draft Solar PEIS is now available for public review, as detailed in the “Notice of Availability for the PEIS” published in the Federal Register on December 17, 2010 (http://solareis.anl.gov/documents/docs/SolarDraftPEIS_NOA.pdf). The Notice provides information on dates, times, and locations of public meetings on the PEIS, and solicits public comments. Comments can be submitted using the Public Comment Form on the Solar PEIS website (http://solareis.anl.gov/involve/comments/index.cfm).

For More Information Information about the Solar PEIS is available on the Public Information website (http://solareis.anl.gov).

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MORE ON THIS ISSUE:

http://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/Salazar-Chu-Announce-Next-Step-in-Nations-March-toward-Renewable-Energy-Future.cfm

This press release says "reasonably foreseeable solar energy development is anticipated on only about 214,000 acres of the suitable and appropriate BLM lands in 6 western states."


MAP OF CALIFORNIA LANDS: http://solareis.anl.gov/documents/dpeis/maps/alternatives/Solar_DPEIS_CA_Statewide.pdf

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/16/AR2010121604898.html

http://www.ca.blm.gov/tf5c
http://www.mydesert.com/article/20101217/BUSINESS/12160394/1006/news01/New%20program%20could%20fast-track%20solar%20projects
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http://www.ca.blm.gov/1f5c
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-16/u-s-selects-solar-power-zones-to-streamline-project-approval-process.html

12/16/2010--The Wilderness Society studied the 24 areas initially suggested by the BLM and this month and identified two that aren’t suitable for development, said Alex Daue, a spokesman for the society.
One is the 110,000-acre Iron Mountain zone in California, located between the Joshua Tree National Park and the Mojave Desert National Preserve.
“A couple of the zones are inappropriate for large-scale solar development,” Daue said in a telephone interview. “Iron Mountain should be taken off their map.”
The Wilderness Society plans to work with other environmental groups and the Interior Department to promote development at the solar zones it considers best suited for large-scale energy plants, Daue said. It will do so during a 90- day comment period that begins when the document is published in the federal register, he said.
“We support solar development on most of the zones and we want the BLM to ensure projects are built within those zones,” Daue said.


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Solar Project near Ridgecrest opposed by Fed's advisory committee:

http://www.ridgecrestca.com/news/x41610864/Steering-committee-opposes-solar-project
6/29/2010--Steering committee opposes solar project

Ridgecrest, Calif. —
The Bureau of Land Management Steering Committee, at its meeting Thursday, voted 12-1 to approve a letter stating its opposition to Solar Millennium's proposed solar-power-plant project. Committee Member Dave Matthews cast the dissenting vote.
…He said the committee members represent certain entities in the Indian Wells Valley. “We represent their beliefs of what they would like to see or what they wouldn't like to see.”
The committee's letter states the project would use approximately 600,000 gallons of water a day during construction, 200,000 gallons a day during operations and 191,000 gallons of propane a year.
The letter also stated a concern the project would disturb 2,000 acres of top soil known to contain spores that cause valley fever and the proximity of the disturbed soil to human population that includes children and the elderly.
…The committee's letter stated the draft EIS does not comply with CEQA and NEPA regarding full and frank discussion of alternative sites.
“Preference is to be given to land that has already had disturbance,” it said.
According to the letter, the Garlock alternative has such a disturbance and is not located nearly as close to communities and individuals as the proposed site.
“DEIS discussion of the site does not indicate it has the wildlife issues (ground squirrel, tortoise) that the RSPP has,” said the letter.
It also states the draft document does not comply with the state and national acts regarding full and frank discussion of alternative energy sources, and the southern project area sits squarely within the northern gateway to the El Paso Mountains — one of the most popular recreational destinations in the Desert District.

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Plus--L.A. Plans Solar "Ranch" in Owens Valley
FROM Eastern Sierra Land Trust-10/14/2010:

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power announces plans for 3000 acre Owens Valley "Solar Ranch"

LADWP is preparing an Environmental Impact Report for the proposed Southern Owens Valley Solar Ranch, which would provide 200 megawatts of energy from photovoltaic solar panels. Two potential sites are being considered for this 3000 acre development. The northern site is located northeast of Lone Pine, east of the Owens River. The second site is just east of HWY 395 and north of Owens Lake. More info about the upcoming scoping meeting and where to send comments can be found here: Southern Owens Valley Solar Ranch.

http://www.ladwp.com/ladwp/cms/ladwp013701.jsp

Monday, December 7, 2009

City Trash next to National Park is a no-no...

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CEQA HELPS PROTECT EAGLE MOUNTAIN FROM LANDFILL


11/10/2009--The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Environmental Impact Report for the proposed landfill provided by Kaiser Ventures LLC insufficiently addressed the potential introduction of chemical nutrients into the ecosystem of Eagle Mountain near Joshua Tree National Park.

http://www.lacsd.org/info/waste_by_rail/default.asp


Ninth Circuit panel halts Eagle Mountain landfill Nov. 10, 2009 | Molly Peterson | KPCC

http://www.scpr.org/news/2009/11/10/landfill-swap/

A controversial land swap that would locate the world's largest landfill near Joshua Tree National Monument has again been stopped after a new appeals court ruling.

For the last 20 years, the Kaiser Corporation’s tried to develop a landfill on property at Eagle Mountain. Not just any landfill – Eagle Mountain would take in 20,000 tons of garbage a day, 6 days a week, 16 hours a day at its peak.

Kaiser sought to swap land with the federal Bureau of Land Management to amass enough property for its dumping needs. The mining company obtained permits and cleared state court challenges.

But the National Parks Conservation Association and a desert-area couple challenged the swap deal in federal court, and a judge blocked it. Now an appeals court has upheld that ruling.

Judges determined that the federal land agency focused too much on the company's goals for the land, and not enough on the public interest. The court also found fault with the agency's scrutiny of environmental effects.

Kaiser Ventures and the BLM could still appeal the decision. Conservation groups and desert dwellers call the ruling a major victory in a 20-year dispute over the fate of the Eagle Mountain project.


To see the full court ruling, visit:
http://www.npca.org/media_center/pdf/Ninth_Circuit_Opinion.pdf

For background information, visit:
http://www.npca.org/pacific/desert/threats/eaglemountaindump.pdf

http://www.mydesert.com/article/20091111/NEWS0802/911110308/-1/newsfront/Court-nixes-proposal-for-dump-near-Joshua-Tree

Eagle mountain dump loses suit at 9th circuit

http://www.pe.com/localnews/rivcounty/stories/PE_News_Local_E_eagledump11.4644444.html


Thursday, October 23, 2008

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More on Big Solar Plans in the Desert


from: http://www.blm.gov/ca/news/newsbytes/2008/354.html

"Solar project under review" (Imperial Valley Press, 10/20/08)
"If Stirling Energy Systems’ 750 megawatt solar project is completed, one Imperial County supervisor believes it would reaffirm this county as the No. 1 energy producer, at least in this state...." Another supervisor "said the county would like to see the Stirling project go forward, while working with the off-road community to diminish any potential impacts."
(Note: this news site may require free registration to view its content online.)
http://ivpressonline.com/articles/2008/10/21/local_news/news03.txt

RELATED: "Environmental review process begins for solar project in Imperial County" (BLM-California news release, 10/17/08)
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, together with the California Energy Commission, today published a notice announcing that the agencies intend to prepare an environmental impact statement/staff assessment for the Stirling Energy Systems' Solar Two Project in Imperial County. The project, to be located about 14 miles west of El Centro, involves about 6,500 acres, including 6,140 acres of BLM public lands and 360 acres of private lands.
http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/info/newsroom/2008/october/CDD0910_Sterling_Solar2_NOI.html

"Take a look at coincidences in solar power deal" (Oakland Tribune, 10/16/08)
Editorial: "There is a fascinating relationship tied to a breakthrough solar-energy complex near the Mojave Desert Preserve. What is significant about this is the players involved stand to make a handsome sum of money becoming the first solar-generating station on U.S. Bureau of Land Management land ... VantagePoint has a major stake in Oakland-based startup BrightSource Energy, which is planning to spend $2 billion to construct solar power plants along the Nevada border, and has locked up a deal to sell electricity to PG&E, enough to power 321,000 homes annually. "
http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_10727573

Thursday, July 24, 2008

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Federal Wildlife Agency Upholds Protections for Threatened Dunes Plant in Imperial County Desert Dunes


7/24/2008

Last Wednesday the administration quite rightly dismissed a petition by off-roaders to remove protections from a rare floral resident of California's Algodones Dunes, the largest sand-dune ecosystem in the United States. The Peirson's milk-vetch, a pretty, purple-flowered plant adapted to live in harsh conditions of shifting sands, blowing winds, and arid heat, grows only within a narrow corridor of the dunes -- which, unfortunately for the wildflower, are the popular destination for hundreds of thousands of plant-destroying off-road vehicles each year.

In a dubious petition submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, off-road vehicle groups insisted the milk-vetch population is stable enough that it no longer needs protection. But the agency said those claims just can't be supported. The milk-vetch will retain its protections, and the roughly 50,000 acres of the dunes already closed to off-road vehicles will stay off-limits to their tearing tires.

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/plants/Peirsons_milk-vetch/index.html

Read more in the Press Enterprise.

The Riverside Press-Enterprise, July 16, 2008

Wildflower to retain federal protection;
50,000 acres remain closed to off-road enthusiasts
By Jennifer Bowles

A plant that is threatened with extinction and whose low numbers prompted officials to close more than one-third of the desert's most popular off-roading area will remain under federal protection, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday.

Off-highway vehicle groups, including the American Sand Association, had petitioned the federal wildlife agency seeking to remove the Peirson's milk-vetch for the federal list of endangered and threatened plants and animals.

The groups said the plant's numbers were more abundant than previously reported and they believed its seed bank could support a healthy and stable population.

But the wildlife agency said those claims could not be supported, in part because rainfall amounts differed between survey years, which could significantly change the number of plants.

The agency used data from federal agencies and independent scientists, and the decision to keep the plant protected was peer-reviewed, said Jane Hendron, a fish and wildlife spokeswoman.

"The assertion that the plants are in even greater number was not borne out by the data," she said. "The plant is affected by off-highway vehicle use, and it's reproductive capacity can also be affected by the off-highway vehicle use."

A member of the pea family, the milk-vetch has pale purple flowers and the entire U.S. population lives at the towering dunes that stretch north of the Mexican border in Imperial County.

The wildlife service said that more than 65 percent of the plant's population sits within the roughly 50,000 acres that were closed in 2000 by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management as part of settlement negotiations with environmental groups.

Charlene Bower, a longtime dunes enthusiast who lives in Riverside and works for Yucaipa-based Sand Addiction Magazine, a bimonthly publication geared toward off-roaders, said the decision to keep the plant under protection was unfortunate.

"That means it's less likely the land will be reopened ... and hopefully it will not lead to more closures," Bower said.

Ileene Anderson, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity, which sought the plant's protection, said she hoped those temporary closures would become permanent when the BLM completes an updated management plan for the dunes.

Stephen Razo, a BLM spokesman, said a draft is expected to be released by early next year and the range of options being considered would address the closures.

Friday, September 21, 2007

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SOME HAVE DOUBTS ABOUT SALTON SEA RESTORATION


FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS

From El Paisano, newsletter of the Desert Protection Council, Summer 2007

http://dpcinc.org

http://www.dpcinc.org/newsletters_elpaisano/ElPaisanoSummer07.pdf

In April, California’s Resources Secretary proposed a new Salton Sea Restoration Plan containing much that is good for the birds and other wildlife that depend on this vital stop on the Pacific Flyway. Mandated reductions in agricultural runoff, the sea’s only supply of fresh water, could cause it to shrink or evaporate completely, removing wetlands vital to migrating birds and releasing dust from the dry lakebed to pollute the air of Imperial and Coachella valleys. The new plan would provide more than 50,000 acres of habitat for a variety of species ranging from migratory birds to the endangered desert pupfish and would reduce air quality problems associated with the exposed lakebed.

But there’s a problem with the plan – a $7 billion problem. Along with its habitat and air quality measures (which will cost about $2 billion), the plan also includes the creation of two large recreational lakes that would cover additional wildlife habitat. These lakes would require the construction of giant dams and an equally large pumping operation to move water from one end of the sea to the other.

This massive engineering project will destroy more habitat and add to the air pollution problem. All of this proposed work puts the total cost of the plan at $9 billion – a high price tag against which the San Diego Union-Tribune has already editorialized. Is it likely that the state will ever spend this much to

“Save the Salton Sea”? The California Audubon Society doesn’t think so, and is instead supporting a phased approach that would ensure that the less-expensive habitat restoration takes place first.

For more information, visit Audubon’s Salton Sea web page (reprinted below): http://ca.audubon.org/salton_sea.html.


Salton Sea Restoration Progress Report…

from around April 2007 (before State chose the final plan)

We’re in the home stretch now, poised to select the final restoration plan for the Salton Sea. Your letters and emails have really made a difference – in late April, the California Resources Secretary will propose a Salton Sea restoration plan that provides substantial habitat for the Salton Sea’s more than 400 bird species, protection of air quality and the endangered Desert Pupfish.

click for larger view
Lots of bird habitat but too much,
too costly lake

It would be a big victory for birds and wildlife except that it also includes two lakes primarily for recreation and development that triple the cost and pose enormous risks to the environment. The money and water needed for these recreational lakes could sink the whole restoration plan unless the habitat and air quality provisions are funded and implemented first. The estimated cost of the draft restoration plan is a whopping $9 billion, and contains the following elements:

The Good: Shallow saline habitat of approximately 60,000 acres; pupfish habitat and some deep water habitat; air quality mitigation on the exposed Seabed.

The Bad: A Marine Sea, larger than Lake Havasu, that would require pumping enormous quantities of water up from the southern end of the Sea, and a smaller recreation lake in the south on what should be prime habitat.

The Ugly: The rock source to construct the northern dam will require destruction of an entire mountain, likely to be endangered species habitat and with huge air quality impacts from the mining, transport and construction. The cost of these recreational lakes in the desert will be $5-7 billion more than the habitat and air quality elements of restoration. The water demand could jeopardize habitat and air quality needs.

click for larger view
Audubon’s preferred restoration plan

Audubon believes that it is extremely unlikely that $9 billion will ever be spent on Salton Sea restoration. We are working, therefore, to have the implementing legislation, SB 187, written to include the following provisions:

  • the final restoration plan contains sufficient habitat and is constructed in phases to ensure that the shallow saline habitat complex and air quality mitigation measures are built and implemented first;
  • the final restoration plan ensures that funding and water are used first to satisfy habitat and air quality needs;
  • the project level EIR is developed in an open and public manner similar to the process used to develop the programmatic level EIR; and
  • construction of the recreational lakes is subject to additional conditions including:
    • 90 percent of its cost is borne by local entities, and the source and transport of construction materials comply with all environmental protection laws;

The Salton Sea is California’s largest lake and a key stopover for literally millions of birds each year, including the threatened snowy plover and Yuma clapper rail. The Salton Sea straddles Imperial and Riverside Counties and though little known outside the birding world, the Salton Sea is a national treasure.

But the fate of this desert jewel hangs in the balance as the volume of water that sustains this 360-square mile lake will decrease by more than 30 percent within the next 20 years, rapidly shrinking the lake and increasing the amount of dust and salt that blows through the Imperial and Coachella valleys. The legal agreement allowing this water transfer from Imperial County to San Diego requires the state and federal government to restore the Salton Sea to “maximum feasible attainment” of historic levels of fish and wildlife. With your help, we can make a wildlife oasis out of this murky paradise.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

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Legal War Over Colorado River Water


http://www.calcoast.org/news/water0070205.html

Canal-lining project knee deep in limbo
By Gig Conaughton, North County Times
February 5, 2007

SAN DIEGO ----Water officials say a new canal-lining plan will deliver enough water to San Diego County to sustain more than 135,000 households every year for more than a century.

Congress passed a law in December saying the plan should go forward without delay, despite objections from Mexican farmers and California environmental groups who say it could kill Mexicali farming and wetlands.

Yet the long-discussed $353.6 million project, which would line parts of Imperial Valley's All-American Canal with concrete, remains in legal limbo, halted by a federal appeals court order. The 82-mile canal runs from northeast of Yuma, Ariz., down along the U.S.-Mexico border into Imperial County east of San Diego, delivering water from the Colorado River to the desert.

San Diego County Water Authority officials said the cost of lining the canal continues to rise because of the delays, and that the earliest the project could start bringing water to the county would be spring 2009.

"We were hoping to start (construction) in August ... this pretty much delays us about a year in the timeline," said Halla Razak, the authority's water resources manager.

Dan Hentschke, the water authority's top lawyer, said last week that the latest legal argument revolves around whether the law that Congress passed in December should override an injunction the U.S. Ninth Court of Appeals slapped on the project in August.

Hentschke said attorneys for the United States Bureau of Reclamation and environmental opponents have each submitted their arguments, but the court has not given any timetable for when it would hear the issue.

Razak said that the water agency's hope is that the court will hear the issue in March."We think we might be hearing from the court sometime in March, and we're hoping that we'll be able to restart the process (and begin construction) by June," Razak said.

However, Robert Gaylord Smith, the attorney representing the environmental and Mexicali farmers' interests that want to kill the project, said by e-mail last week that they believe the courts will side with the environmentalists.

"I think (our chances) are very good," Smith wrote, "but it's up to the courts to decide."The canal-lining project, which has been discussed for nearly 20 years, would build a concrete-lined replacement for a 23-mile stretch of the Imperial Valley's earth-lined All-American Canal.

The project would conserve water by preventing it from seeping through the canal bed. The canal doesn't directly deliver water to San Diego. But the conserved water would be shipped via Metropolitan Water District of Southern California pipelines to San Diego County residents for 110 years.

Water officials have been discussing the canal-lining plan since the 1990s.In 2003, it became part of a complex series of agreements among San Diego County, Imperial Valley, Coachella Valley, the Metropolitan Water District, the state of California, six other Western states and the federal Bureau of Reclamation. Those deals were designed to get California to cut its take of water from the Colorado River to give the other growing Western states a larger share.But the project was derailed late last year by a challenge filed by an unusual coalition of Mexican business interests and California environmental groups.

Those groups said that water seeping through the bottom of the canal has sustained groundwater supplies for Mexicali farmers, wetlands and endangered animals for decades. Lining the canal, they argued, would steal that water and potentially kill those animals, wetlands and farms.

A Superior court judge ruled against the groups twice in 2006.But in August, to the surprise of federal, state and regional water officials and even the canal-lining project's environmental foes, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overruled the Superior Court and banned further work on the project until it could hear the issue again.

Then in December, Congress passed an omnibus bill containing several proposed laws. The legislation includes a portion pushed by the water authority that reaffirms Congress' support of the canal-lining plan and orders the project carried out "without delay."The bill also states that Congress, not the courts, have sole authority to deal with international treaties and whether water seeping out of the All-American Canal belongs to Mexico or the United States.

The Bureau of Reclamation and water agencies have submitted arguments to the Ninth Court that the injunction stopping the canal-lining project should now be moot.Smith and the environmental groups have filed papers arguing that the courts, not Congress, should decide the issue.Razak, meanwhile, said the canal-lining project's costs are rising because of the delay.

Just recently, she said, water agencies completed negotiating a deal to pay the company that is waiting to construct one portion of the lining project an additional $7.5 million just to cover the cost of waiting.

Razak said water agencies are still negotiating with a second company that is waiting to build another portion of the stalled project.In addition, Razak said, the costs of such materials as concrete are expected to increase as the delay continues.

The cost of the canal-lining project was $353.6 million. However, the water authority and San Diego County ratepayers are only paying $251 million. Because of the importance of the project, the state is paying the rest.Water officials, meanwhile, say that even with the delays and increases, the canal-lining project is more than worth it.

In April, Razak said the cost of water coming from a lined canal, averaged over 110 years, would be about $20 per acre foot, far cheaper than the $502 to $598 the water authority now pays the Metropolitan Water District for imported water. An acre foot of water is 325,900 gallons, enough to sustain two households for a year.

Razak said last week that the delays have been frustrating."We would have been smack in the middle of construction," she said. "But I am hopeful that we'll be able to proceed soon. We're trying to make sure that we have enough water to meet the needs of the region. This is a good resource to do that. We're just waiting for it to happen."


----------------------------
Environmental Groups AND State OK $8.9 Billion Salton Sea Restoration Plan



(click on map to enlarge)
http://www.saltonsea.water.ca.gov/

The 75-year effort to save the polluted resource would cut it to about a fifth its current size and add sections of wildlife habitat.


By David Kelly, Times Staff Writer
May 26, 2007

An ambitious $8.9-billion, 75-year plan to save the Salton Sea was handed to state lawmakers Friday. It calls for a drastically shrunken lake, the creation of a new "marine sea" and creation of thousands of separate wildlife habitats.

"What we have done here is truly historic," said Michael Chrisman, California's resources secretary. "There is a little bit in here for everyone. There will be a lot of debate, and we think that is very healthy."

The plan, three years in the making, would reduce the Salton Sea to about a fifth of its current size. The water would be less salty, and sport fish, such as the corvina that vanished five years ago, would be reintroduced.

The plan calls for the creation of a 62,000-acre "saline habitat complex," a series of 1,000-acre cells that would include bits of shoreline, islands and peninsulas to be habitat for birds, fish and invertebrates.

A special 2,000-acre habitat would be built first to help save species, such as the tilapia, that are threatened by rising salt levels.

Under the proposal, 52 miles of barriers and 158 miles of berms would be added, and 106,000 acres of lake bed would be exposed.

"The Legislature said in 2003 that the restoration of the sea is critically important," Chrisman said. "There will be a big debate about the cost and timeline, but my sense is that the Legislature has already said yes and we will move forward."

At 15 miles wide and 35 miles long, the Salton Sea is the biggest lake in California. It was created accidentally in 1905 when the Colorado River broke through a levee.

There is no natural outlet, so the water is getting saltier and more polluted from agricultural runoff. It's already 25 times saltier than the ocean.

The last major fish species remaining is the tilapia, and scientists say that fish could disappear by 2018.

Tilapia are the chief food source for many of the 400 bird species, such as the endangered brown pelican, that winter on the lake.

Chrisman said the $8.9 billion for the project probably would come from a combination of local, state and federal sources and a variety of partnerships.

"True, it's expensive, but it's a price tag over 75 years," he said.

As the lake shrinks and huge areas of its floor are exposed, a major issue will be air quality. In places such as the Imperial Valley, into which the lake extends, childhood asthma caused by swirling dust clouds is a major problem.

"Air quality will be a big-ticket issue; we realized that early on," said Dale Hoffman-Floerke, chief of the Colorado River and Salton Sea office for the state Department of Water Resources.

She said water would be used to keep the area wet so dust wouldn't swirl, that salt-tolerant vegetation would be planted and vehicles would be banned from areas where they probably would kick up dirt.

But Rick Daniels, executive director of the Salton Sea Authority, is worried.

"We are very skeptical about the air quality. We cannot afford to have a big dustbowl like the Owens Valley out there on our eastern border," he said. "It would destroy the area as a result."

He also said that the Torres Martinez tribe, which has 11,000 acres of its reservation land beneath the sea, does not want its submerged ancient villages to suddenly appear when water levels drop.

"They don't want scavengers out there," he said. "These are all technical things that will be solved. Even though it has warts and blemishes, it's worth moving forward."

The plan was embraced by the Salton Sea Coalition, which includes the Sierra Club, the Pacific Institute and the Defenders of Wildlife.

"Now it's up to the Legislature to make good on the secretary's efforts and not abandon the sea, or the hopes and hard work of the many people who have devoted so much time to designing a plan that meets that the state's obligations to protect public health and wildlife," said Jim Metropulos, legislative representative of Sierra Club California.

Kim Delfino of Defenders of Wildlife California said in a statement, "Failing to restore the Salton Sea is simply not an option. The sea is just too important to the people, agriculture, economy and wildlife of the region for us not to save it."

The timeline for construction, assuming the plan is approved, would be broken into four periods beginning in 2007 and ending in 2078, with most of the major building to take place between 2014 and 2025.

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