The area, once branded “Lithium Valley” by state officials eager to tout California as a future hub for electric vehicle battery production, remains largely undeveloped. Legal battles, funding shortfalls and technical hurdles have combined to slow projects that were supposed to be well underway by now.

The southern shore of the Salton Sea sits atop some of the richest lithium deposits in the world, locked within geothermal brine deep underground. Lithium is a key ingredient in batteries for electric vehicles and consumer electronics, and state leaders have long hoped the region could reduce America’s reliance on foreign sources of the mineral. But turning that potential into production has proven far more complicated than anticipated.

The most advanced of the proposed projects, Controlled Thermal Resources’ Hell’s Kitchen development, has run into repeated legal setbacks. Opponents sued, arguing the company failed to adequately study the project’s effects on water supplies and air quality. Last month, a state appeals court agreed, ordering Imperial County to redo portions of its environmental review.

Luis Olmedo, executive director of Comite Civico del Valle, one of the groups behind the lawsuit, said the ruling confirms concerns residents have raised for years.

“Do we have enough water to support these projects over the long term?” Olmedo said in a statement. “What happens to our communities if Colorado River supplies are reduced? And what happens to our air as less water reaches the Salton Sea? The Court of Appeal made clear that those questions deserve credible and well supported answers.”

A spokesperson for Controlled Thermal Resources said the company is weighing its legal options and declined further comment because litigation is ongoing.

Newsom’s office did not respond directly to questions about the delays, instead referring inquiries to the California Energy Commission. A commission spokesperson acknowledged progress has lagged behind expectations.

“Though efforts to develop the resources have been slower than anticipated — largely due to global lithium markets and prices — progress is being made, with developers securing funding to advance projects,” said Niki Woodard, the commission’s communications director.

Imperial County Supervisor Ryan Kelley said the delays reflect how novel and difficult this type of mining really is.

“It’s not an easy thing to work with,” Kelley said. “It’s a hot resource with a lot of solids in it, and that’s why the lithium is there. So we’re still very optimistic and encouraged by the companies that are still proceeding.”

A vision built on promise

In 2023, Newsom traveled to the Salton Sea to declare the region a future global center for lithium extraction and battery manufacturing, one he said would help power the nation’s shift away from gasoline-powered vehicles.

“We’ve been all-in on Lithium Valley, building up a global hub for clean energy and making sure that local communities benefit from this once-in-a-generation opportunity,” Newsom said at the time.

The Salton Sea itself is an unusual and volatile landscape — a hypersaline lake surrounded by mud pots, small volcanic domes and underground reservoirs of scalding, mineral-laden water. Geothermal plants already dot the area, converting steam from those aquifers into electricity. According to the California Energy Commission, those same aquifers hold the highest lithium concentration of any geothermal brine on Earth. A federal study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimated there is enough lithium in the region to build 375 million electric vehicle batteries — more than all the cars currently on U.S. roads.

Companies hoping to tap that resource say their process, which draws lithium from the brine in a closed-loop system, would be far less damaging than traditional hard-rock mining overseas or the sprawling evaporation ponds used in South America.

State officials embraced the idea early on. In 2021, California formed the Lithium Valley Commission to study the economic and environmental questions surrounding extraction. The following year, Newsom joined then-President Joe Biden to promote the effort and pledged more than $100 million toward research and development.

Legal fights slow momentum

As the state’s enthusiasm grew, so did scrutiny from environmental and community groups. Hell’s Kitchen, which is designed to produce up to 300,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate annually and generate nearly 50 megawatts of geothermal power, became the focal point of that pushback.

Comite Civico del Valle and Earthworks, a mining watchdog organization, filed suit in 2024, contending that the project’s environmental review failed to adequately examine air quality, water consumption, hazardous waste and effects on tribal cultural sites.

A judge initially sided with Controlled Thermal Resources in January 2025, ruling the company had satisfied state environmental law. Company CEO Rodney Colwell told CalMatters at the time that construction was expected to begin soon, though he acknowledged the litigation had already delayed financing and pushed back the timeline by at least a year.

That victory proved short-lived. In August, an appellate court partially reversed the earlier ruling, finding that the project’s environmental documents failed to demonstrate the Imperial Irrigation District could reliably supply water for the next 50 years, or account for potential reductions in Colorado River allocations. The court also found the review inadequate in addressing how water diversions could worsen air quality by further drying out the Salton Sea lakebed. Imperial County has been ordered to fix those gaps.

Jared Naimark, western senior mining manager for Earthworks, called the decision a significant victory for the community.

“They can’t just say, we’ll figure that out later,” Naimark said. “They need to show their work on where that water is going to come from now, and analyze the impacts of it.”

Tribal and community voices

Although the court found that the company had adequately consulted with tribal representatives, some Native leaders say they still want a stronger voice in decisions affecting sacred sites. Kwaaymii elder Carmen Lucas has called for protections around mud pots and other locations she says hold deep spiritual significance.

“From the beginning I have made it clear that I’m not opposed to development,” Lucas said. “I am asking that it be done in a balanced way.”

She is advocating to have the area known as the Southeast Lake Cahuilla Active Volcanic Cultural District added to the National Historic Register — a designation that wouldn’t necessarily block development but would formally recognize the region’s cultural importance.

“It’s clear to me that Washington is looking at California’s desert as a wasteland,” Lucas said. “There’s a beauty in the desert, and it opens the door for creativity and imagination.”

Imperial County officials say they are still reviewing the appellate court’s decision and determining next steps, according to Bari Bean, the county’s assistant executive officer.

Jobs on hold

While legal and regulatory questions play out, many local residents who trained for anticipated lithium jobs are still waiting. San Diego State University opened an $80 million science and technology facility in Imperial County specifically to prepare workers for the industry. University President Adela de la Torre warned in a recent commentary that without faster progress, graduates could find no jobs waiting for them.

Federal policy shifts have added to the uncertainty. The Trump administration has scaled back clean energy funding commitments, and Congress eliminated federal tax credits for electric vehicles last year — both of which cloud the long-term outlook for lithium demand.

Locally, the Imperial County Board of Supervisors has also stirred controversy with its plan for distributing future lithium tax revenue, which would direct the bulk of funds to the county government while splitting the remainder among cities based on population rather than proximity to lithium facilities.

Looking ahead

Despite the setbacks, Hell’s Kitchen has continued moving forward in other ways. The project last year received an extended federal permitting timeline under the Army Corps of Engineers’ FAST-41 program, designed to speed approval for critical infrastructure. In January, Controlled Thermal Resources also announced plans to supply geothermal power to data centers — a sign the company may be diversifying beyond lithium extraction to also serve the booming artificial intelligence sector. Shortly after, it merged with Plum Acquisition Corp. to become a publicly traded company, a move aimed at accelerating the first phase of construction.

Two other companies are also pursuing lithium projects in the region. Berkshire Hathaway’s CalEnergy, which already runs 10 geothermal plants near the Salton Sea, recently completed a pilot program extracting lithium and converting it into battery-grade compounds. The company plans to open a demonstration facility in Calipatria by the end of the year, running it through 2027 before deciding whether to build a full commercial operation capable of producing 90,000 metric tons of lithium annually — enough for roughly 11 million EV batteries.

EnergySource Minerals has also secured permits for a separate lithium facility, Project ATLiS, though the company has not released a construction timeline. CEO Eric Spomer said the project is progressing and could eventually generate significant tax revenue along with hundreds of construction and operations jobs.

“We are actively engaged with all stakeholders to move this project forward as quickly as possible,” Spomer said.

Meanwhile, Imperial County is working to create a broader planning framework — a Lithium Valley Specific Plan paired with a comprehensive environmental review — intended to streamline future development and avoid the piecemeal legal battles that have slowed projects so far.

“I wish we had something of the commodity being produced today, but if it’s going to be produced in the years to come, that’s a good thing,” Kelley said. “And it will be done in accordance with all of the rules and regulations of the state of California, which are not as easy as other states and other regions of the world.”

Original source: CalMatters

The post Lithium Valley Promises Boom, But Progress Stalls in California’s Imperial County appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

T’neya “TT” Tovar was reported missing on Dec. 1, 2025. Authorities said she was last seen in Thermal, an unincorporated community in Riverside County’s Coachella Valley.

Weeks into the search, deputies with the Imperial County Sheriff’s Office responded on Dec. 21 to reports of human remains in the Vista Delmar area near Portsmouth Avenue and Newhaven Court. At the scene, investigators located a human leg that showed signs of decomposition.

The remains were collected by the Imperial County Sheriff’s Office Coroner’s Unit and submitted for forensic examination. Initially, investigators were unable to determine the sex, age, or race of the individual.

Multiple agencies collaborated in the investigation, working to develop a DNA profile and comparing it against local and regional databases. Despite extensive efforts, authorities were initially unable to confirm the person’s identity.

On Feb. 6, Imperial County Scientific Investigations personnel received a positive DNA match indicating the remains belonged to a female. Investigators then focused on a missing juvenile case from Riverside County believed to have connections to the Salton City area.

Tovar’s mother was contacted and agreed to provide a DNA sample for comparison. A rapid DNA analysis confirmed a positive match, officially identifying the remains as those of the missing 17-year-old.

On Feb. 14, deputies served a search warrant at a residence in the 2800 block of Harlequin Court in Salton City. During the operation, 51-year-old Abraham Feinbloom was taken into custody. Authorities reported that Feinbloom attempted to jump a fence at the property but was quickly apprehended.

He was subsequently booked on charges of murder and resisting a peace officer and is being held without bail. The investigation remains ongoing.

Anyone with additional information is encouraged to contact the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office at (951) 776-1099, the Imperial County Sheriff’s Office at (442) 265-2265, or the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office at 1-800-225-5324.

The post Arrest Made After Remains Found Near Salton Sea Identified as Missing Riverside County Teen appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Kelly O’Keeffe | Contibuted

Congressman Raul Ruiz, M.D. (CA-36) and U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm brought national attention to the clean energy opportunities at the Salton Sea and the need to protect the community’s public health. In a Congressional hearing with the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy, Dr. Ruiz and Secretary Granholm highlighted local residents’ experiences with the public health and environmental impacts of the Salton Sea, calling for meaningful consultation with the community as the nation seeks to unlock the clean energy potential of the Sea’s lithium deposit.

“I was pleased to bring you to North Shore at the Salton Sea so that you could hear directly from the local residents – especially moms – about the environmental and public health crisis at the Sea and our clean energy opportunities in the region,” Dr. Ruiz said in the hearing. “We also visited many community leaders at Calipatria High School to discuss how lithium could be transformative for the region, but only if it was done right…That means doing it with transformative community development benefits in infrastructure, health care, education, and workforce development so that the people working in these lithium extraction facilities are the local community members who need and deserve these jobs. We need to make sure that the companies do not simply come in, extract the wealth from the community, and leave.”

Last week, the Congressman and Secretary visited the North Shore Yacht Club in Riverside County and Calipatria High School in Imperial County where they held community listening sessions with local residents. In the hearing, Secretary Granholm noted that the community’s input from these sessions would be incorporated into future plans at the Department of Energy.

You can watch Dr. Ruiz’s full remarks in today’s hearing at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NXDqQBJRIw7OluAohRteSQdruVoRNapa/view

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Following Visit to the Salton Sea, Dr. Ruiz & U.S. Energy Secretary Granholm Put Community Needs at the Forefront in Congressional Hearing appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Demand for electric vehicles has shifted investments into high gear to extract lithium from geothermal brine, salty water that has been overlooked and pumped back underground since the region’s first geothermal plant opened in 1982. The mineral-rich byproduct may now be more valuable than the steam used to generate electricity.

California’s largest but rapidly shrinking lake is at the forefront of efforts to make the U.S. a major global player in the production of lithium. Despite large deposits of the ultralight metal in the U.S., Nevada has the country’s only lithium plant, and U.S. production lags far behind Australia, Chile, Argentina and China.

Decades of environmental ruin have left some residents on the Salton Sea’s receding shores indifferent or wary. They have been disappointed before, most recently by solar plants that failed to be the economic engine many hoped.

The Salton Sea formed in 1905 after the Colorado River breached a dike and two years of flooding filled a sizzling basin, earning it the nickname “The Accidental Sea.” In the 1950s, the lake thrived as a tourist destination, drawing anglers, boaters and celebrity visitors including Frank Sinatra.

But storms in the 1970s destroyed marinas and resorts. Flooding wrecked many homes in the tiny, former resort town of Bombay Beach, and after the water dried, left an almost apocalyptic atmosphere that has recently attracted artists.

The lake level peaked in 1995 but, with little rain, has since been evaporating faster than Colorado River water seeping downhill through farms can replenish as farmers conserved more water.

Since 2003, the 324-square-mile (839-square-kilometer) lake has shrunk 40 square miles (104 square kilometers), exposing vast lakebed with microscopic wind-blown dust that contributes to poor air quality and asthma. The sea has been a key stopover for migrating birds. But as the lake has shrunk, the fish population has declined, chasing away about 25% of the more than 400 bird species that populated it five years ago, said Frank Ruiz, Audubon California’s Salton Sea program director. Carcasses of oxygen-starved tilapia no longer blanket shores periodically with a stench that could reach Los Angeles because there are so few left.

In Salton City, a town of about 6,000, roads curve along empty lots, a legacy of its first developer who stopped construction in 1960. Street signs with idyllic names like Harbor Drive and Sea Shore Avenue mark a barren landscape of cracked pavement.

Pat Milsop, a 61-year-old retired restaurant owner, hits golf balls across a dry canal. His view is filled with dilapidated docks on bone-dry soil that harbored boats when his mother-in-law bought his house in 2004. He is skeptical that lithium will restore some of the lake’s glory.

“Are they going to do something good for the community or just buy up all the land and kick everybody out?” he asks. Nostalgic for livelier days, he plans to move to his farm near Lubbock, Texas.

The lake is at the southern tip of the San Andreas Fault, which has shifting tectonic plates that bring molten material closer to Earth’s surface. The only other part of the U.S. known to have more geothermal brine available is on the fault’s other end in Northern California.

Rod Colwell, chief executive of Controlled Thermal Resources Ltd., oversees construction of what would be the region’s first geothermal power plant in nearly a decade. General Motors Corp. said it invested in the project as it seeks to eliminate tailpipe emissions from light-duty vehicles by 2035.

The lake’s southern shores are dotted with small, volcano-like pots of bubbling mud caused by geothermal activity. In 2011, Colwell walked about a mile in the Salton Sea’s knee-deep water — all of it now evaporated, with a fine powder below a white, cracked crust.

Lakebed is considered an ideal spot for lithium. The company says it plans to drill down 8000 feet (2,438 meters) for super-hot liquid.

“There is no brine resource like this anywhere on the planet,” said Colwell, who relied on years of extensive, publicly available reports analyzing the area’s soil.

He said the $520 million plant will start producing lithium in 2024.

Owners of 11 existing geothermal plants around the lake’s southern shores are retooling for lithium and possibly other brine minerals instead of building from scratch. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy Co. has state and federal grants for lithium demonstration projects and says it could begin construction for commercial operations in 2024.

EnergySource LLC opened its geothermal plant in 2012 and its sister company, EnergySource Minerals, has extracted lithium there on a small scale since 2016, said Derek Benson, chief operating officer. It plans to start building a $500 million addition for mineral extraction by the end of March.

An easily overlooked metal structure faces the plant across a two-lane rural road. Bolted down by tons of concrete, it drills more than 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) underground for steam that allows for electricity to be generated and delivered to the Salt River Project, a utility with 2 million customers in central Arizona.

Before it’s pumped back underground, the brine is “borrowed” for a few hours to extract lithium under a nearby canopy, Benson said.

Extracting lithium from geothermal brine has never been done on a commercial scale. There are two dominant production methods: mining for rocks and using cooler brine that bakes under the sun in large ponds for about two years until the water evaporates. The Nevada plant uses evaporation ponds.

San Diego-based EnergySource operates on the former site of Simbol Materials, a heavily hyped company that used geothermal brine and flopped in 2015 after negotiations collapsed over Tesla Inc.’s $325 million offer to buy it. Business decisions caused the company’s demise, according to industry experts and executives affiliated with the latest projects. Technology has since improved, they say, and so have market conditions.

Demand for lithium has soared as more carmakers shift to electric. California has targeted 2035 to achieve zero emissions from all cars and trucks sold in the state. The Biden administration hopes to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

“This is the moment where a number of trends, the confluence of them, have finally come together,” Benson said.

Detailed environmental impact reviews, required by California law, have not been released. Benson says his company’s geothermal brine technology uses much less land and about one-fifth the water of evaporation ponds and emits one-seventh the carbon dioxide of rock-mining.

Unique geochemical characteristics bring risk regardless of technology, said Alexander Grant, principal at research firm Jade Cove Partners.

“It’s very easy to fall into this narrative that the technology is not proven, but that is fundamentally not the right way to look at it,” said Grant, a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory research affiliate. “The fact is that it’s hard to build lithium projects.” Smokestacks shooting steam at geothermal power plants are a towering presence amid flat fields of lettuce, melons and alfalfa.

Despite hugely productive land that stocks U.S. supermarkets with winter vegetables, Imperial County has a poverty rate of 22%, among California’s highest. El Centro, the county seat, perennially has one of the highest unemployment rates among 389 U.S. metropolitan areas.

Many farmworkers commute daily from Mexicali, Mexico, to pick vegetables in winter and melons in spring. In the summer, snowbirds flee stifling heat and people stay inside, making towns and fields look deserted.

Lithium has generated cautious optimism. EnergySource expects to contribute $80 million to $90 million annually to the economy, largely through payroll, taxes and royalties. Controlled Thermal Resources is expected to create 1,400 jobs, according to the Imperial Valley Economic Development Corp.

“How do we end up with this great opportunity before us but at the same time not get burned?” said Luis Olmedo, executive director of Comite Civico del Valle, which advocates for low-income and underserved residents, and a member of the Lithium Valley Commission, a state panel to promote the lake’s lithium resources.

The lake depends entirely on Colorado River water gravitating through canals across hundreds of thousands of acres of chemical-laden farms. Amid growth, Arizona demanded its full entitlement of river water, forcing California to end its overuse. In 2003, squabbling California agencies settled on shifting large amounts of the state’s share to San Diego, meaning less water for Imperial County farms and, by extension, the Salton Sea.

Persistent drought tied to climate change raises the prospect of even less Colorado River water seeping downhill into the lake.

Longtime residents miss when eared grebes, cormorants and white and brown pelicans were more abundant.

“The noise was awesome,” said Carlene Ness, 74, who bought a western shore house with her late husband in 1999. “That’s what everybody bought for, and we have to fight for it.”

In Calipatria, a city of 8,000 closest to the geothermal investments, lithium may be the biggest boon since two state prisons opened in the early 1990s. On a stifling July day, a gas station on the main street was the only establishment with activity.

Ruben Hernandez, 54, has worked for an Imperial Valley landowner since he was 8. He and his wife own a Mexican restaurant in the largely deserted town of Niland. His wife wants to stay, but “there’s nothing here, no town,” he said.

Lithium project backers who come for breakfast tell him he could eventually be feeding 20 to 30 people and delivering lunches to their plant.

“If they are going to lift this town up, it would be great,” Hernandez said.

ELLIOT SPAGAT | AP News

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Lithium fuels hopes for revival on California’s largest lake appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Its receding shoreline has caused an ecological crisis as exposed silt is blown into surrounding areas.

From the air, brown furrowed fields stretch as far as the eye can see and the sun beats down on an almost evaporated canal that looks like a gaping wound.

Dusty former boat launches have fallen into disuse, too far from the waters they once served.

Drought has scorched much of the West, prompting farmers in California to leave fields fallow and triggering water and energy rationing in several states.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Salton Sea Receding Amid California’s Worst Drought Since 1977 appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

   Ruiz co-wrote the letter with Rep. Juan Vargas, D-El Centro, to the Chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources requesting a hearing in the fall so that testimony can be heard from federal officials of various agencies he said have fallen short in their responsibility to help mitigate the environmental and public health challenges posed by the shrinking lake.

   “Congress must hold federal agencies accountable for protecting the public’s health and recognize that managing the Sea is an emergency. A hearing will allow me to ask federal agencies tough questions and hold them accountable to their agreements,” Ruiz said in a statement.

   He states in the letter that he would like the opportunity to ask officials from the U.S. Department of the Interior, which owns about 40% of the Salton Sea, “what obligations they have to prevent threats to public health as a result of that ownership.”

   He also wants to allow local stakeholders to provide Congress with testimony about the health issues created by the diminishing lake.

   Officials say that because the lake has historically been fed largely by agricultural runoff, dust picked up by wind from newly exposed lake bed contains dangerous chemicals that have contributed to respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses for residents living near the Salton Sea in both Riverside and Imperial counties.

   Also of concern is the increased salinity level of the waters, which has left the lake on the “brink of ecological collapse,” according to Ruiz.

   “We view this hearing as a critical step towards establishing the robust federal-state partnership at the Salton Sea that is required in order to avoid a severe public health and environmental crisis,” he said.

   The last Congressional hearing on the Salton Sea was conducted by the House Natural Resources Committee in 1997.

Read Rep. Ruiz’s full letter below:

Search: “Salton Sea”

CONTACT: Hernan Quintas, Hernan.Quintas@mail.house.gov, 202-302-1137

Visit HSJC for the latest news!

The post Local Congressmen Call for Hearing on Salton Sea appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.