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Salton Sea The commercial viability of direct lithium extraction (DLE) in the Salton Sea remains unsettled, though academic researchers providing consultation to the lithium the industry believe use of DLE is inevitable based on current progress. However, the environmental history of the Salton Sea in conjunction with underrepresented communities in the region present a tense dynamic with industry forces. The success or failure of lithium production will likely be judged by the demonstration of commercial extraction, community benefits, and Salton Sea restoration. In the six interviews conducted, multiple themes emerged, including issues on environmental impacts, environmental review processes, community engagement, economic impacts, and questions about whether lithium extraction would follow typical resource extractive models. Although there are three major projects, in addition to government grants funding extraction research, much of the perceived impact is speculative and will remain so until larger scale pilots are successful. Policy recommendations were largely focused on the impact of industry expanding in the area, which will come with its own housing, infrastructure, and environmental concerns. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS Interviewed stakeholders expressed a mixture of enthusiasm and hesitancy about environmental impacts from geothermal expansion and lithium production. It was important for stakeholders to discuss lithium in context to other areas, potential negative externalities, and Salton Sea restoration and public health. Most stakeholders thought impacts would be relatively small. However, several community and environmental organizations still had reservations about the unknown cumulative impacts of expanded industry on the region. Lithium Extraction in Context For stakeholders aware of the potential for DLE at the Salton Sea, it was important to contextualize three points—the potential smaller footprints of DLE in comparison to other extraction methods, the total lithium reserves available at the Salton Sea, and using the area to expand renewable energy sources. One researcher noted, “the traditional ways of mining lithium are really thrashing the environments in other countries. In contrast, the footprint of geothermal lithium extraction is very small, it's 100 times smaller than a solar deposit in Chile and it's at least 10 times smaller than a typical open pit mine in Australia.” Although DLE holds promise in reducing cumulative emissions and could serve as a vital source of lithium, multiple stakeholders remained cautious of large-scale commercial impacts in the Salton Sea, citing the unknown cumulative impact on the region. Environmental Concerns The existing state of the Salton Sea was described as “dire” by one environmental stakeholder, commenting the water levels had declined significantly over the past decade. Concerning the potential impact of industry moving into the Salton Sea, they went on to say, “geothermal and lithium are moving into an area that isn’t exactly pristine, but they are moving into an area that is fraught with a history and decades of environmental damage and degradation, and a population that is the most severely impacted in the state.” Still, explicit environmental concerns for those interviewed included impacts on water usage, air quality, waste disposal, and emissions from the associated transportation of lithium products. Community organizations raised concerns about water usage, a divisive topic in the arid Salton Sea region. A community group stated that DLE could use about 2,400 acre-feet of water per year. But when speaking to both lithium researchers and environmental stakeholders on the overall water impact of DLE on the Salton Sea, they viewed water usage as trivial. An environmental stakeholder indicated that if as much as 150,000 acre feet a year are consumed by geothermal and lithium production, that amount is insignificant compared to the water already used in the region. According to the Imperial Irrigation District (IID), 2.5 million acre feet were used in 2020 (IID 2022). One researcher stated that 90% of current IID water goes directly to the agriculture industry, with only 2% going to geothermal. They suggested water conservation efforts should be aimed at the agriculture industry to increase efficiency and reduce waste. Comments from the Imperial Irrigation District © TNC Potential Lithium Extraction in the United States: Environmental, Economic, and Policy Implications 54 AUGUST 2022PDF Image | Potential Lithium Extraction in the United States
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