Audubon California Executive Director Brigid McCormack writes in the Desert Sun that if you want a model for fixing the Salton Sea, you only have to look 300 miles north to Owens Lake, where people came together to create solutions to similar problems.

"Receding waters letting loose clouds of toxic dust. Migratory birds struggling to hang on. Officials hamstrung by financial and political constraints. Frustration and hopelessness about the future.

Those phrases may aptly capture the building crisis at the Salton Sea, but they’re actually describing the situation at Owens Lake, about 300 miles to the north, prior to 2000.

The seemingly intractable problems at Owens Lake were brought under control by a coalition of environmental groups, farmers, water districts, tribes and others who hammered out a consensus solution providing for the needs of public health and wildlife. The success at Owens Lake offers hope for the Salton Sea."