{"id":5696,"date":"2017-07-18T22:32:33","date_gmt":"2017-07-18T17:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/?p=5696"},"modified":"2017-07-18T22:32:33","modified_gmt":"2017-07-18T17:32:33","slug":"california-today-a-fight-over-water-in-the-mojave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/?p=5696","title":{"rendered":"California Today: A Fight Over Water in the Mojave"},"content":{"rendered":"

A company\u2019s vision to pump water from the Mojave Desert and sell it to thirsty Southern California cities had looked to some to be a long shot.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Lemon orchards in the Cadiz Valley in 2015<\/p><\/div>\n

Cadiz Inc., which owns about 50 square miles atop a major aquifer in the Cadiz Valley, has pushed proposals to tap the water since the 1990s. The latest iteration has been mired for years in a thicket of regulatory and legal hurdles.<\/p>\n

But a series of developments has invigorated backers of the project, which involves both federal and state jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

Investors appear to have taken note. Last month, Cadiz announced up to $255 million in new funding.<\/p>\n

Environmental groups and some lawmakers, including Senator Dianne Feinstein, have warned that the Cadiz plan could wipe out springs that sustain desert plants and wildlife.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very concerned right now,\u201d said Frazier Haney, conservation director of the Mojave Desert Land Trust, a nonprofit.<\/p>\n

Mr. Haney said pumping in the Mojave could permanently damage the groundwater basin through subsidence, or sinking of the ground. \u201cOnce we break it, we can\u2019t get it back,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

A major point of contention between the two sides is whether the aquifer would be naturally recharged in equilibrium with the water being removed. The science is fiercely disputed.<\/p>\n

Cadiz wants to pump 50,000 acre-feet of water a year over the next half-century, enough to sustain about 100,000 homes and earn the company more than than $1 billion in revenue.<\/p>\n

Supporters, including a number of state lawmakers, say environmental reviews and court tests have shown the project to be sound.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an environmentally benign project,\u201d said Dan Ferons, general manager of Santa Margarita Water District, the lead public agency on the Cadiz project.<\/p>\n

Faced with recurring drought, he added, California can\u2019t afford to refuse new water sources.<\/p>\n

Some water experts say projects like Cadiz offer only incremental relief and distract from what should be the focus: conservation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just seems like somebody trying to make money,\u201d said Jay R. Lund, head of the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California, Davis.<\/p>\n

To solve our water dilemma, he added, we should look to cities in places like Spain and Israel, where per capita water use has been cut to as little as a quarter of those in California.<\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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