In 2025, California began filling a 750-acre expansion of the Salton Sea wetlands; the project aims to create wildlife habitat while reducing dust from the drying shoreline

As the Salton Sea recedes, the exposed lakebed creates two major environmental concerns: habitat loss and dust that wind can carry into nearby communities. California reached a restoration milestone in 2025 when water began filling the East Pond Expansion, part of the state's Species Conservation Habitat (SCH) Project. The East Pond Expansion covers approximately 750 acres. Together with the existing East Pond, the two ponds account for a combined area of approximately 2,000 acres.The East Pond Expansion adds to California's restoration effortsThe filling of the East Pond Expansion was announced by the California Department of Water Resources on May 22, 2025. The department described the milestone as part of the state's effort to restore habitat and improve environmental conditions around the Salton Sea. It is estimated that the East Pond Expansion has an area of approximately 750 acres (or 1.2 square miles). Together with the East Pond, which has been filling since early April 2025, the total area of these two ponds to become operational in the coming weeks is 2,000 acres. The total area of 2,000 acres must not be mistaken for the area of the expansion. The SCH project will cover more than 9,000 acres (or 14 square miles) upon completion. The project includes shallow ponds, berms, nesting and loafing islands, and water delivery systems designed to sustain fish and bird populations. These features are important because the Salton Sea lies along the Pacific Flyway, a route used by migratory birds traveling between breeding and wintering grounds. As the lake recedes and its salinity rises, aquatic habitats and the food resources that support wildlife can change or disappear. The SCH Project is intended to restore some of this habitat while reducing dust from selected areas of exposed lakebed.Exposed playa threatens air quality in nearby communitiesPlaya is another threat in addition to habitat destruction. Winds can lift small particles from exposed soils, blowing the dust into nearby areas. Imperial Valley residents already struggle with air quality problems, and thus the control of dust in the region around the Salton Sea is a public health problem. The paper "Air Quality and Wheeze Symptoms in a Rural Children's Cohort Near a Drying Saline Lake," published in the journal Environmental Research, has investigated the link between respiratory symptoms and particulate matter exposure among 722 primarily Latino or Hispanic children. Caregivers provided information on the children's respiratory symptoms, whereas researchers used air-monitoring data to estimate dust-storm hours. The research defines a dust-storm hour as one when PM10 concentrations exceed 150 micrograms per cubic meter.The study did not find the same association among children living 11 kilometres or farther from the Salton Sea. Among children living less than 11 kilometres from the Salton Sea, every additional 100 hours of dust-storm exposure per year was associated with a 9.5-percentage-point increase in wheezing and a 4.6-percentage-point increase in bronchitic symptoms.It is possible to use water to prevent dust emission from exposed sediments. This technique does not prevent all air emissions from the sources; however, it helps reduce emissions from treated parts of the shoreline, which is gradually receding. The SCH project is aimed at restoring the habitat along with suppressing dust storms.Restored wetlands offer habitat for fish and migratory birdsThe SCH Project aims to deal with habitat losses in relation to the reduction of the surface area and increased salinity in the Salton Sea. Aquatic habitat can be created through shallow ponds, and nesting/loafing islands will serve as sites for resting and breeding for birds. Water quality is also crucial for the fish and other animals making up the food web. There is an additional 2024 study, Hydrogeologic and hydrochemical inputs to emerging wetlands on the shores of the receding Salton Sea, California, which studied the water sources and water quality at the Bombay Beach Wetlands. In particular, there were two proposed water sources: thermal artesian water or a combination of thermal artesian water and sediment water from the receding shoreline. Since the mentioned study does not consider the SCH Project, it cannot be taken as an assessment of the East Pond Expansion.The research nevertheless illustrates a broader consideration for wetland restoration: the presence of water alone does not guarantee that a wetland will sustain a particular ecological community. Water chemistry and the way water reaches a wetland can also affect its ecological conditions. For the SCH Project, maintaining suitable habitat and water conditions will be important to the long-term value of the restored ponds.Flooding the lakebed addresses only part of the problemThe East Pond Expansion is a specific project aimed at improving the habitat in the wetlands, as well as preventing dust from some areas of the exposed lakebed. With 750 acres of area, it is part of a larger project designed to cover more than 9,000 acres in total. The approximately 2,000 acres refer to the combined area of the existing East Pond and its expansion, not to the size of the new expansion alone. However, it should be noted that the ecological issues of the Salton Sea are not limited to the area described above. As a result of reduced inflows and increasing salinity levels, the lake has become smaller and exposed more of the lakebed. The SCH Project is one part of California's broader environmental restoration efforts, and reaching the goal of filling it in 2025 does not mean that all ecological and air-related problems have been solved.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.