Approved! Crucial Bill to Protect California Resource Moves to Senate

(SACRAMENTO) – Today, the California State Assembly clashed over a bill authored by Senator Richard D. Roth that determines whether or not California protects its most precious resource: water. After raucous debate, Assemblymembers approved SB 120 in a 45-20 vote and sent it to the California State Senate for concurrence.

The issue at hand is the role the state will play in safeguarding the fragile ecosystem in the Mojave Desert. Proposals to extract water from aquifers historically receive the highest level of scrutiny. One such proposal by Cadiz Inc. has persisted – despite nearly two decades of legal and political controversy – in its attempts to extract up to 50,000 acre-feet of water annually from beneath the Mojave Desert and export the water to agencies 200 miles away.

No federal or state government agency or court has reviewed the underlying scientific research that Cadiz offers to argue that it will not harm the state and federal lands around Cadiz.

Cadiz argues that their water mining project has received full CEQA approval, that their process has been thorough and their numbers vetted and court-approved. However, when courts make decisions on CEQA lawsuits, they review the procedural aspects of developing the Environmental Impact Report (EIR); not the science within.

The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated that the natural recharge rate of this basin from rainfall is from 2,000 to 10,000 acre-feet a year – a range that is from 5 to 25 times less than the 50,000 acre-feet of annual extraction envisioned by the project.

“It is absurd to allow any project that proposes to take water out of a desert aquifer to move forward when there is so much disagreement about the project’s fundamental numbers. The facts are stark: we have scientists who vehemently disagree on this project’s numbers,” said Senator Richard D. Roth (D-Riverside). “To make an error on this… if we get it wrong, we will ruin not just a sacred spring, but an entire ecosystem. Who will be responsible for that? The urgency of this issue cannot and must not be lost. The math doesn’t add up. To allow our state’s water to become a pawn of corporate greed – as our firefighters make a heroic stand against historic wildfires fueled by a state still recovering from drought – is outrageous and unforgivable.

“We are duty bound to ensure that the pause button is hit on this. We must reconcile the science because if we don’t, what we stand to lose is too great,” said Senator Roth. “Now is not the time to play Russian Roulette with our precious water.”

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Senator Richard D. Roth represents the 31st State Senate District, which includes the communities of Corona, Eastvale, Jurupa Valley, March Air Reserve Base, Moreno Valley, Norco, Perris and Riverside. Prior to his election, he served for 32 years in the United States Air Force, retiring in 2007 in the grade of Major General.