To the editor: For Imperial Valley residents studying between the strains, the article in regards to the decline in respiratory well being for folks dwelling close to the evaporating Salton Sea chronicles the intersection of housing insecurity and environmental threat.
Your article begins with the story of the Clark household, who moved to Niland — an Imperial County group with little public well being infrastructure and excessive environmental threat — due to housing unaffordability of their earlier hometown. Even with the state’s highest unemployment charge, residence costs in Imperial County have risen by 24% in simply the final 12 months.
Tales of financial migration to cities lining the Salton Sea — corresponding to Thermal, Niland and Salton Metropolis — seeking reasonably priced housing reveal a sort of local weather migration in reverse. Financial insecurity is driving folks to areas with excessive environmental threat and low public well being infrastructure.
As lithium investments across the Salton Sea develop, so should investments in stopping and mitigating environmental threat in our communities. These investments should additionally strengthen entry to fundamental wants corresponding to housing, healthcare and jobs, so folks’s publicity to environmental air pollution isn’t decided by financial standing.
Daniela Flores, Calipatria, Calif.
The author is co-founder of the Imperial Valley Fairness and Justice Coalition.
