Company wants to sell water from Mojave Desert public lands

A company operating just off Route 66 in the Mojave Desert wants to extract and sell groundwater at or near public lands to cities in Southern California, reported the Los Angeles Times.

Cadiz Inc., which got its name from a small town near Route 66, initially drilled water wells to irrigate grapevines and citrus trees in the desert. The company now has something bigger in mind:

The company is pushing ahead with a proposal to pump enough groundwater every year to supply 100,000 homes and sell it to urban Southern California at prices that could, over the project’s 50-year life, reap $1 billion to $2 billion in revenue. […]

At times sounding like they are describing a major oil discovery, Cadiz officials are pitching the project as a dependable alternative to water deliveries from Northern California and the Colorado River that have been squeezed by drought and environmental regulations. […]

Federal lands surround the 34,000 acres the company owns just south of Route 66 near the old railroad stop of Cadiz. A half-dozen congressionally designated wilderness areas are close by. About 15 miles to the north lies the 1.6-million-acre Mojave National Preserve, managed by the National Park Service.

Cadiz’s proposed network of 30 wells, each about 1,000 feet deep, would pump groundwater that flows from beneath these public lands and is replenished by rain and snowmelt from their mountain ranges: the Providence and New York, the Marble and the Clipper.

Environmentalists worry over whether pumping out all that water will affect natural springs that sustain wildlife in oases sprinkled throughout the desert. Critics also fret that the government will be stuck with a bill in hundreds of millions in subsidies for the project if debt-laden Cadiz Inc. goes under.

The Times also spelled out my biggest concern:

Cadiz intends to withdraw more water every year than nature puts back in the ground, lowering the groundwater table and depleting the aquifer. By how much, and whether that will harm the fragile desert environment of nearby public lands, remain important questions.

No one really knows the rate of natural groundwater replenishment in the 1,300-square-mile area that drains toward the Cadiz operation. Scientists can only estimate it based largely on conceptual modeling that has yielded a wide range of numbers over the years.

Federal hydrologists and scientists hired by environmental groups say the natural recharge rate is at most half — and could be less than a sixth — of what Cadiz’s experts say it is.

And the Southwest has repeatedly underestimated water demand or overestimated the capacity of the region’s aquifers. Count me in as one of the people open-minded about this project, but very uneasy about its possible repercussions.

UPDATE 5/25/2012: Voice of OC, a nonprofit investigative news agency, reports that several water district officials met in secret with Cadiz at least 30 times since 2009. The officials may have run afoul of open-meetings laws.

2 thoughts on “Company wants to sell water from Mojave Desert public lands

  1. I guess my first question is – how does Amboy get it’s water? And my second would be – why can’t they get water from the very same aquifer?

    Someone can by land in the middle of the desert for pennies on the dollar, for no other purpose than making billions to pipe it somewhere else, depleting that water source over time, while nearby towns that should be able to use the same water, continue to dry up? Enlighten me on this one again???

  2. This is actually pretty old news. The owner of Cadiz when Governor Davis was in office was also Davis’ right hand man on water-related issues in California. Enough said. (Oh, and yes, if you couldn’t tell, I’m adamantly opposed to this proposal.)

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