Salton Sea restoration hits snag

Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed to cut funding from the Salton Sea Restoration Council, a state agency tasked with reversing the environmental decline of the state’s largest inland body of water. Brown maintains cutting this funding would allow a local agency to spearhead the restoration project, which has been met with multiple political and economic roadblocks, according to The Sacramento Bee.

An increase in salinity in the 35-mile-long Southern California lake (pictured) has killed many birds and fish and raised concern that hundreds of square miles of seabed will be exposed within the next five years, potentially resulting in dust storms.

Assemblyman V. Manuel Pérez (D-Coachella) proposed control of the project be handed to the Salton Sea Authority, an agency composed of regional representatives.