I
was born and raised in the Imperial Valley. When I was a boy my father
would take us to the Salton Sea to fish, swim and water ski four or
five times a month. That was in the late 1950s and early ’60s.
The
fishing was excellent and the water was very clean. The corvina fish
were great to eat. At the Bombay marina there were always many campers
and travel trailers. The place would be packed on weekends. The other
marinas were also full. At all of the marinas and places like the HI HO
cafe in Niland you could enter in the fishing derbies that were held
every month for the biggest corvina caught. What a great recreational
place the Salton Sea was. What a great source of revenue for the
Imperial Valley.
I took my wife and children up to Red Hill
Marina at the Salton Sea recently which is close to Niland. There was
no one there. The place looked like a ghost town. The water looked like
black coffee and there were lots of dead fish along the shore. I have
talked to several people about the fishing and was told that the
corvinas don’t bite.
I know that the Salton Sea was supposed to
be a reservoir for farm water drainage but to see the Salton Sea in the
condition that it is in now deplorable. How could anyone allow such a
magnificent place of nature and recreation degrade into what the Salton
Sea is now? Someone needs to be held accountable for this nightmare.
What about the hundreds of millions of dollars Imperial County has lost
in revenues over the years? Plus the loss of recreation from the Salton
Sea.
There is a simple solution for the Salton Sea. Build a
pipeline from the Pacific Ocean to the Salton Sea to add fresh ocean
water and pump out the gross dirty water. Just like flushing the
toilet. Very simple. The Salton Sea must be saved.
