Torres Martinez Wetlands

 The Torres Martinez Wetlands (RHB) Project is one of three that was awarded a Proposition 84 grant from DWR’s Salton Sea Financial Assistance Program (FAP). The FAP was created in 2012, under the authority of the California Department of Fish Wildlife with the goal of enabling local stakeholders to actively participate in projects benefitting birds in and around the Salton Sea. DWR was responsible for dispersing the grants, administering the agreements, and ensuring California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) compliance. (The FAP is no longer accepting grant applications).

The Torres Martinez Wetlands Project will create up to 61 acres of habitat on land owned by the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Tribe. The project site is located on the playa above the northwest shoreline of the Salton Sea in Mecca, Riverside County, California, close to the mouth of the Whitewater River. It will use solar power to pump shallow groundwater to a series of ponds and will provide habitat to fish and fish-eating birds. Twenty acres of wetland is set to be completed by the end of 2017. The next phase should be completed by the end of 2018.