New campaign aims to improve life around the Salton Sea
Adrik Vargas
IMPERIAL COUNTY, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) – A new community-led effort is focusing on life around the Salton Sea.
Residents and local groups are coming together to make their voices heard.
The Campaign for Thriving Salton Sea Communities is led by Alianza Coachella Valley. It brings together residents, nonprofits, researchers, and agencies to support the community’s well-being.
One of the big projects is a trail network connecting communities throughout the region. The idea is to improve access, mobility, and create more opportunities for local economic growth.
As Aydee Rodriguez from Alianza explains, “We’re talking about a network that would, include, not just, you know, like, like sidewalk or pavement, but then also lights, electric charging stations to prepare our community for, the transition to cleaner vehicles, broadband, and electric, grid stability.”
The group is also using community science to collect data on air and water quality.
“We’ve been doing collection of water samples and testing them for various, like, nutrients, or like chemicals,” Aydee said. “And then what we’ve done is we’ve also installed, two hydrogen monitors right above the water, one in the north and the south end to monitor how much hydrogen sulfide is coming out of the sea at what times.”
Challenges remain, and Alianza hopes to work through them this fall at a roundtable.
“What does it look like to, work together in collaborative funding? Because sometimes, like, we’re forced to compete against each other for certain funding buckets,” Aydee said. She also emphasized the need for more data. “Linking emissions coming out of the Salton Sea to public health consequences, illnesses, sicknesses. Because if we had that, then I think that we could hold more accountability to those responsible.”