The Los Angeles Times's Patt Morrison interviews Tim Krantz, a University of Redlands environmental studies professor, about what's at stake at the Salton Sea. An excerpt:

"If you had a 30-second TV spot to make your pitch for saving the Salton Sea, what would it say?

The sea is not an accident. It's not there in the isolated desert. It affects 1.5 million people who live around it. It's not a local, regional problem; it's much broader. To deal with it retroactively, only after thousands of people have lost their lives, only after property values from Palm Springs to the border have declined, only after the fish and wildlife values, the migratory bird values have been lost — we're facing the dilemma in perpetuity, trying to put Band-Aids on the problem. Or we can spend that money now and maybe get a return on our investment in short order."

Read the whole piece here.