Saving the Salton Sea

The state of California has recently released 10 proposals for restoring the shrinking Salton Sea, a large body of salty water in Southeastern California created by a levee break in 1905. Although the Sea is man-made and fed mainly by irrigation runoff, millions of migrating birds have come to rely on its habitat, as farming, population growth, and development have swallowed up the wetlands they had used for millions of years. The Department of Water Resources is now accepting public input on the proposals, which range in cost from roughly 2 to 6 billion dollars, before presenting a final recommendation to the state legislature. Larry Mantle talks about the alternatives with Sandy Cooney of California's Resource Agency, Rick Daniels of the Salton Sea Authority, Michael Cohen of the Salton Sea Coalition and Michael Morgan of the Imperial Group.