"The people of California’s Imperial Valley can be as unforgiving as the region’s harsh desert climate.

It’s been 16 years since Bruce Kuhn cast the fateful vote to transfer tens of billions of gallons of Colorado River water from the valley’s sprawling farms to thirsty coastal cities, reshaping water politics in California and across the West.

But for many locals, it might as well have been yesterday.

Voters sent Kuhn packing from the Imperial Irrigation District’s board of directors last month after a primary campaign in which his leading opponent, J.B. Hamby, hammered him over the consequences of the water transfer — including the accelerated demise of the Salton Sea, a giant lake that is spewing lung-damaging dust into the air as it shrinks."

Sammy Roth reports for the Los Angeles Times April 23, 2020. [2]