Friday, September 27, 2013

USA, California:

Salton Sea Authority Looking at Small-Scale Restoration Plans (Imperial Valley Press)

With implementation of a comprehensive Salton Sea restoration plan years away at best, if at all, the Salton Sea Authority is developing a method to evaluate smaller projects that help rehabilitate the sea incrementally as small amounts of funding become available.

The Imperial Irrigation District is advocating the development of the Salton Sea’s geothermal resources for additional green energy while securing long-term funding for environmental restoration.

“In our minds, geothermal and other renewable energy … in the southeast corner (of the Salton Sea) is going to be very important, and we need to work to put that into the plan,” Wilcox said.

“From a geothermal point of view you have to go where the resource is, so that’s the southeast corner (of the Salton Sea). From a perspective of habitat, you have to go where the water is. So that means the south end or the north end primarily,” he said.

The idea of building habitat next to geothermal energy plants is not as unusual as it might first appear, Wilcox said. Most of the area’s geothermal plants are near the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge on the southern end of the Salton Sea.

A GRC Field Trip will visit some of the geothermal power plants around the Salton Sea on Thursday, October 3, as part of the GRC Annual Meeting & GEA Expobeing held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
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