Salton Sea
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Re “Salton Sea Bill Unveiled as Bono Tribute,” Feb. 26: Sonny Bono was an intelligent, affable and conscientious congressman. I liked him even though he was a Republican.
Now, according to The Times, Newt Gingrich proposes to spend $327 million to reclaim the Salton Sea. What is it to reclaim? It is an artificial, contaminated sump hole created by the rupture of the irrigation canals in 1905. Until then, it was an arid salt flat below sea level and called the Salton Sink. It is still a sinkhole draining the brackish water from the leaching fields of the lettuce farmers.
At this moment, it is nothing but a cesspool. You don’t have to be an expert to be able to analyze its unmistakable aroma. I can’t see residents from Palm Springs leaving their grandiose swimming pools to dip their dainty toes into an area where even the Audubon Society fears to tread. Bono deserves better--so does the taxpayer.
MARTIN BURTON
Rancho Palos Verdes
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