• Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Before Header

Donate

UC_iST_1c_Blue

Inquiry with impact

  • About
    • About Us
    • What is Social Transformation?
    • Meet the Team
    • Faculty Support
    • Impact Report
    • Partners
    • Help Us Grow
    • Contact Us
  • Research Initiatives
    • Current Initiatives
    • Past Initiatives
  • Funding Opportunities
    • Faculty Research
      • Catalyze Awards
      • Emerging Scholar Manuscript Workshops
      • Current Fellows
    • Experiential Learning
      • Building Belonging Program
      • — Building Belonging Projects and Fellows
      • Transforming Futures Program
      • — Transforming Futures Interns
  • Publications
    • Publications
    • Better World Books
    • Resource Guides
      • Voting Resources
      • Anti-racism and Criminal Justice Reform
      • Immigrant Rights and Immigration Reform
    • Video Library
    • Audio Library
    • Q&A with Changemakers
    • Journal of International Society and Culture
    • COVID-19 Response
  • News & Events
    • Featured News
    • Upcoming Events
    • — Past Events
    • — Past Conferences
  • About
    • About Us
    • What is Social Transformation?
    • Meet the Team
    • Faculty Support
    • Impact Report
    • Partners
    • Help Us Grow
    • Contact Us
  • Research Initiatives
    • Current Initiatives
    • Past Initiatives
  • Funding Opportunities
    • Faculty Research
      • Catalyze Awards
      • Emerging Scholar Manuscript Workshops
      • Current Fellows
    • Experiential Learning
      • Building Belonging Program
      • — Building Belonging Projects and Fellows
      • Transforming Futures Program
      • — Transforming Futures Interns
  • Publications
    • Publications
    • Better World Books
    • Resource Guides
      • Voting Resources
      • Anti-racism and Criminal Justice Reform
      • Immigrant Rights and Immigration Reform
    • Video Library
    • Audio Library
    • Q&A with Changemakers
    • Journal of International Society and Culture
    • COVID-19 Response
  • News & Events
    • Featured News
    • Upcoming Events
    • — Past Events
    • — Past Conferences

Mobile Menu

Donate
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
SaltonSeaPicture_PC Daniel Hastings

Salton Sea Long Term Planning Project 

Professor Brent Haddad, Principal Investigator


California’s Salton Sea is rapidly losing water as inflows have reduced over the past 30 years. Its footprint is shrinking and salinity increasing, causing negative impacts to the local economy, public health, and the environment. In May 2021, the State of California Salton Sea Management Program (SSMP) awarded a contract to the University of California Santa Cruz to evaluate water importation concepts to refill the Sea. An Independent Review Panel was established, as well as a Research Support Team that would eventually comprise three UCSC faculty members, one master’s student and six PhD students, as well as engineering, economic, legal, and environmental consultants, under the administration of the Institute for Social Transformation.

The Panel’s charge was to evaluate public submissions describing ways to import water to the Salton Sea basin to restore the Sea.  The Panel operated from October 2021 through September 2022.  It produced four formal reports, all available below.  The reports narrow the importation concepts from 18 to three based on fatal flaws, and then carefully analyze the three, comparing them to two additional approaches identified by the Panel.  The Summary Report presents the Panel’s conclusion: none of the importation concepts is feasible or recommended. Rather, a desalination plant should be built as soon as possible at the Sea to reduce its salinity, with additional water provided from the local Imperial Irrigation District to replace the salty brine effluent water that is produced by the desalination process.

On this page we provide both the formal reports of the Panel, as well as background materials that may be of public interest and use that were developed by the research team.  They are free to the public and include:

  • An interactive multi-layered map developed for the Panel by UCSC doctoral student Daniel Hastings, who narrates a brief film explaining how to use it. 
  • A set of Technical Memos prepared by the research team to help familiarize the Panel with the region and its challenges.
  • Links to the water importation concepts submitted in 2018 and 2021

Recordings of public meetings at which Principal Investigator Brent Haddad explains the Panel’s findings are available at a website curated by the state.

For further information contact the state’s Salton Sea Program at:  cnra-saltonsea@resources.ca.gov .


Panel Reports

Salton Sea Independent Review Panel Summary Report
Salton Sea Independent Review Panel Summary ReportDownload
Salton Sea Independent Review Panel Feasibility Report
Salton Sea Independent Review Panel Feasibility ReportDownload
Salton Sea Independent Review Panel Fatal Flaw Report
Salton Sea Independent Review Panel Fatal Flaw ReportDownload

Press Announcement: Fatal Flaw Report

Comunicado de Prensa: Informe de Fallas Fatales

Salton Sea Independent Review Screening Report
Salton Sea Independent Review Panel Screening ReportDownload
Informe de Selección del Panel de Revisión Independiente de Salton SeaBajar

Background Materials for Public Use

The Independent Review Panel worked with its research support team to develop materials to aid its review of importation options.  We are now making them available for public use.  They include an interactive map and a set of technical background memos to help frame the water importation challenge.

Salton Sea Water Importation Review Panel Web Map and Instructional Video

Salton Sea Water Importation Review Panel Map

Salton Sea Zotero Library

The Panel compiled a database of documents, reports, and scientific papers related to the Salton Sea on the Zotero online platform. If you want access to this database, please register for a free Zotero account at https://www.zotero.org/ and send an email to waterimportationzotero@gmail.com for an invitation to the group.

Research Support Materials

Technical Background Memos

Starting with a long list of categories and topics, some technical memos were completed and others found not to be as important and therefore not pursued. All the completed memos are now available below for public use:

Fatal Flaw CriteriaDownload
History of Binational InfrastructureDownload
Legal, Economic, and Public Health Topics related to Salton Sea ElevationDownload
Lithium and Geothermal ResourcesDownload
Potential for marketing salt produced from desalinationDownload
Previously Used Criteria to Evaluate Major Water ProjectsDownload
Proposed Screening CriteriaDownload
Public Health in the Salton Sea RegionDownload
SalinityDownload
Salton Sea Accounting Model (SSAM)Download
Salton Sea EcologyDownload
Salton Sea Hydrology, Elevation and Surface AreaDownload
Setting Criteria to Evaluate Water Importation ConceptsDownload
Site Visit SummaryDownload
Species Salinity ToleranceDownload
Updated Screening and Feasibility ApproachDownload

Example of a citation:

Taffler, D., 2022.  Salton Sea Hydrology, Elevation, and Surface Area.  Technical Memorandum 10.1 prepared for the Independent Advisory Panel studying proposals to import water to the Salton Sea. Downloaded on November 29, 2022 from: https://transform.ucsc.edu/work/salton-sea-project/.

Water Importation Concepts Reviewed by the Panel

2018 Salton Sea Concepts

Proposals submitted by:

  • AECOM
  • Agess, Inc.
  • CIM Group, LLC.
  • Cordoba Corp.
    • Browse files
    • Download files
  • GEI Consultants, Inc. and Michael Clinton Consulting, LLC
    • Browse files
    • Download files
  • Geothermal Worldwide, Inc.
    • Browse files
    • Download files
  • Quadrant II
    • Browse files
    • Download files
  • Sea to Sea Development Team
    • Browse files
    • Download files
  • Sephton Water Technology, Inc.
    • Browse files
    • Download files
  • The Binational Water Group, LLC
    • Browse files
    • Download files
  • Transform Water and Plant
2021 Salton Sea Concepts

Proposals and updates submitted by:

  • Agess, Inc.
  • Cordoba Corporation Inc.
  • E2Eden LLC
  • Geothermal Worldwide, Inc.
  • Global Premier Development Inc.
  • Jeff B. Geraci
  • New Water Group LLC
  • Online Land Planning LLC
  • Quantum Consultations
  • Sephton Water Technology Inc.
  • Transoceanic LLC
  • Water Train Inc.

Footer

Hex_iST_orange (1)
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube

Contact

Institute for Social Transformation
Division of Social Sciences
1156 High St.
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
email: transform@ucsc.edu

Resources

Anti-Racism
Immigration Reform
Faculty Resources

Newsletter

Sign up to receive the newsletter.

Site Footer

soc_sci_white
  • Accreditation
  • Non-Discrimination Policy
  • Land Acknowledgement
  • Privacy Policy & Terms of Use
  • Sexual Violence Prevention & Response

Copyright © 2025 UCSC Institute for Social Transformation · All Rights Reserved