It’s time to push the pause button on the Cadiz water project

By Senator Richard D. Roth

“Whiskey’s for drinking and water’s for fighting,” a quote frequently if probably erroneously attributed to Mark Twain, is as true a statement today as it was during Twain’s time in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

And, for the past 20 years, there certainly has been plenty of fighting going on over the amount of water that can be sustainably withdrawn from a water basin underneath the Mojave Desert. Cadiz, a Mojave land owner, has proposed, and continues to propose, to pump water — and lots of it — from the Mojave aquifer and sell it to water districts hundreds of miles away, at a profit, potentially destroying the Mojave Desert in the process.

Although characterized by perpetual sunshine and an arid climate, water has flowed underneath the Mojave for thousands of years, giving life to Native Americans, bighorn sheep, the threatened desert tortoise and a variety of other plant and animal life — a fragile ecosystem that has existed, in balance, for centuries.

Cadiz proposes to pump an average of 50,000 acre feet (over 16 billion gallons) of water per year for 50 years from the Mojave aquifer and sell it to water districts in Orange and Los Angeles counties at a profit for purposes of guaranteeing water supply to about 100,000 new homes and 400,000 residents. The project has been stalled for years because, quite simply, it doesn’t work.

What’s the problem? Well, at best, Cadiz’s own scientific reports say that Cadiz will be pulling more water from the aquifer than nature puts back in — in fact, 18,000 acre feet (almost 6 billion gallons) per year more water. One commentator suggested that under Cadiz’s plan, Cadiz would pump enough water from the Mojave to fill the Rose Bowl to the top and then drain it to the bottom 194 times each year.

Cadiz says that the aquifer refills at the rate of 32,000 acre feet per year (not 50,000); but, renowned scientists working with the United States Geological Survey and the National Park Service say the refill rate is more like 2,000 to 10,000 acre feet per year — at least 40,000 acre feet per year less than the Cadiz plan. The math just doesn’t add up.

Is there a serious conflict in the scientific evidence presented here? Yes. If Cadiz is wrong and there’s less water to pump resulting in damage to the desert, won’t that cause a serious problem for the 100,000 households that depend on the water? Absolutely.

In fact, Cadiz may even be forced to terminate that water supply, suddenly and unexpectedly. Then, shouldn’t the conflict be resolved before the pumping starts? I think so.

What about CEQA — didn’t the courts already fully vet the Cadiz project, resolve that conflict and OK the Cadiz pumping plan?

Unfortunately, the courts did not. The California Environmental Quality Act is a public disclosure statute that requires project proponents and the courts to identify the environmental impacts of a proposed project and ways to mitigate those impacts. In fact, in reviewing the scientific evidence for and against a project (such as the pumping rates here), as the court in Cadiz’s own case noted, courts are not permitted to weigh and resolve conflicts in the scientific evidence presented: “In reviewing the lead agency’s actions under CEQA … We may not set aside an agency’s approval of an EIR on the ground that an opposite conclusion would have been equally or more reasonable.”

What should we do? Well, I think we should hit the pause button and have an independent team of scientists review the scientific evidence for and against the Cadiz project and resolve the conflict.

And then, based on that review, set an environmentally sustainable pumping rate — one that ensures an uninterrupted supply of water to all residents while protecting a national treasure — the Mojave — from man-made destruction. My father taught me to “measure twice and cut once.” Senate Bill 307 does just that.

Clearly, Cadiz got this one wrong, and, unfortunately, last week’s editorials in this newspaper did too.

Richard Roth represents the 31st District in the California state Senate.