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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />., <br /> <br />EVALUATION OF OPTIONS FOR RECLAMATION <br />OF THE SALTON SEA <br /> <br />INTRODUCTION <br />Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is operated by the University of California for the <br />Department of Energy, was asked last May by the Congressional Salton Sea Task Force to <br />provide technical support for the remediation of the ecological problems in the Salton Sea. <br />Today I am going to report on how the results of our work in evaluating various concepts <br />for addressing high salinity and variable water levels of the Sea relate to H.R. 3267. Our <br />results are preliminary and in some cases qualitative, but they can be used to help guide <br />decision-makers in their deliberations. Ultimately, selecting the "best" solution for <br />reclaiming the Salton Sea will have to integrate performance, economic, ecological, and <br />institutional factors into the decision. <br /> <br />SALINITY AND WATER LEVEL CONTROL <br />Los Alamos has examined the cost, salinity, and Sea level changes resulting from three <br />remediation concepts: <br />. desalination; <br />. pump-in; pump-out; and <br />. diked impoundment <br />and compared these results with "no action." We have concentrated on performance and <br />economic issues and have not evaluated ecological or institutional factors in this analysis. <br /> <br />The purpose of this work is to determine the primary advantages and disadvantages of each <br />concept. For each concept, there are numerous variations, so detailed engineering designs <br />must be completed once a concept is selected. <br /> <br />Due to anticipated water conservation, for our analysis we assumed the inflow into the <br />Salton Sea will linearly decrease from the present flow of 1.3 million acre-feet per year <br />(MAP/year) to 1.0 MAP/year over a twenty year period. It is important to note that the <br />results are strongly influenced by this assumed inflow reduction. Similarly, using excess <br />Colorado River water could also have a major impact on the results. <br /> <br />The "water and salt balance" model that we used is a fairly simple computer simulation that <br />calculates elevation, surface area, volume, and salinity. The model also takes into account <br />changes in evaporation rate due to changes in salinity and surface area. <br /> <br />No Action <br />If no action is taken the Salton Sea will, of course, continue to increase in salinity from <br />today's level of 44 ppt. Figure 1. The Sea would reach a salinity level of about 60 ppt in <br />about 15 years. This is important because some believe that most fish can no longer live in <br />water at this salinity level. The salinity level would reach almost 100 ppt in 30 years, and <br />after 50 years would approach 120 ppt. <br /> <br />Regarding water level, the elevation of the Sea would be lowered from today's -227 feet to <br />-242 feet after 30 years. This 15 foot drop in elevation would result in a reduction in the <br />Sea's surface area by approximately 20%--from about 380 sq. miles to 304 sq. miles. <br /> <br />2 <br />