George Miller: “the troubles of the Salton Sea are not new to any of us in California. In fact, the Salton Sea has had serious…”

“the troubles of the Salton Sea are not new to any of us in California. In fact, the Salton Sea has had serious biological problems for many years. They have been well publicized fish kills and die-offs of migratory waterfowl that raise both environmental concerns and issues involving international treaty obligations. Various scientific studies have attempted to pinpoint the biological cause of the enormous fish kills and the bird die-offs that afflict this body of water. In 1992, the Congress passed legislation that I wrote expanding these studies and the Department of Interior is engaged in that additional research, although there have not been the appropriations in the last couple of years to finish that research or to move it very far down the line. There really is no mystery about some of the aspects of the problems of the Salton Sea. It is an artificially created body of water formed through an engineering catastrophe earlier in this century. It is growing increasingly salty and contaminated because most of its inflows come from agricultural wastewater and municipal wastewater, loaded salts and heavy metals and pesticides and contaminants. The fact of the matter is the only real source of any water of any volume for the Salton Sea is contaminated, polluted wastewater. That is some of the best water that is in this sea at the current time.”