Saline Lands Exchange Authority

The Saline Lands Exchange Authority would coordinate development at the Delta’s western end.

Landowners in the western end of the Delta have for many decades been coping with the intrusion of salt water from San Francisco Bay. Controlling salinity in the SLEA is a major task for state and federal agencies as they try to balance riparian water rights with diverse “downstream” demands for more fresh water.

Already, regional agencies are contracting with the owners of these marginally productive agricultural islands to use the land as sludge dumps or other “non-productive” uses, including just letting the land go fallow. Treating the SLEA as a dump suggests that it is the Delta area most vulnerable to complete transformation. The SLEA would integrate habitat, recreation and agricultural research stations into this transformation.