Managing the Salton Sea remains a thorny issue for California. We spoke with Pacific Institute’s Michael Cohen and UC Riverside’s William Porter about recent research that might point toward cost-effective ways to protect public health. … Michael Cohen: In the past three to four years, there have been strongly worded news articles saying that the Salton Sea is a toxic sump that’s killing people. That’s exaggerating how bad the situation is. … This report tries to synthesize what other reports are saying about pollution sources in the region. We wanted to raise the question of what’s the best use of limited public funds.

Other Salton Sea news:

• High Country News (Paonia, Colo.): What can we learn from salt lakes?
• The New York Times: Book review: ‘Salt Lakes,’ by Caroline Tracey