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. ., . Salton Sea Symposium The Salton Sea Authority hosted the fourth Salton Sea Symposium on January 9, 2002, in Indian Wells, California, An agenda for the symposiwn has been included in your Board folder. The Symposium was attended by approximately 150 people. Symposium speakers included Congresswoman Mary Bono, Congressmen Bob Filner and Ken Calvert, and Mary Nichols, Secretary of Resources for California, Other speakers presented options for "saving the Salton Sea" and the Sea's value to natural resources and recreation, Pertinent issues discussed by the presenters included the following: . The sea must be saved . The water transfer between the Imperial Irrigation District and San Diego County Water Authority is supported by members of the congressional delegation, Bush Administration, and California's Secretary of Resources . The Salton Sea is expected to become hyper-saline within 7-24 years . With the water transfer, the Sea is expected to become super saline within 2-10 years . The Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA) must be completed by December 31,2002 . Mary Nichols stated that the California is committed to the water transfer and the transfer should not be held hostage to "fixing" the Sea but that the agencies responsible for the transfer should be responsible for the accelerated losses due to the transfer . Mary Nichols also stated that the time has come to agree on a solution and get started with implementing it. Five hundred million dollars is not an unreasonable cost. . The alternatives for saving the Salton Sea include various, in-sea, diking options and land based options for reducing salinity . Cost of the various options ranged from $500 million to $1.6 billion . Disposal of salts extracted from the sea will be difficult and expensive It appears that 2002 is a critical period for developing and adopting a solution for saving the Salton Sea, especially since the Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA) must be implemented by December 31,2002, and implementation of the QSA will need to consider impacts to the Salton Sea_ It also appears that agreement on an alternative for saving the Sea will be difficult to attain, In addition, funding for implementing a solution is uncertain, and the higher the costs, the more uncertain the funding becomes, The symposiwn was well attended and valuable information was exchanged, There seemed to be agreement at the symposium that the Salton Sea should, and probably can, be saved, However, there was not agreement on a single alternative or combination of alternatives toward that end, Saving the Salton Sea will be expensive, and funding for restoration is uncertain at this time, Reaching consenSllS on an approach during 2002 may not be feasible. 10