For years, Cadiz Inc. has sought to pump tens of billions of gallons of underground water from the Mojave Desert and pipe it to thirsty Southern Californians.
Given the desert’s arid landscape, people may shrug and say “So what?” to that piece of news. But experts now have told The Desert Sun in Palm Springs the Cadiz Inc. project could endanger a rare, spring-fed oasis called Bonanza Springs just a few miles north of Route 66 near Essex, California.
The newspaper stated:
Cadiz Inc. is proposing to pump an average of 16.3 billion gallons of water each year for 50 years. The company says the project won’t harm any of the springs in the area, and it recently presented a study in which researchers concluded Bonanza Spring wouldn’t be affected by its groundwater pumping.
Now other researchers have come to the opposite conclusion, saying in a new study that Bonanza Spring is likely connected to the same aquifer where the company plans to draw water from wells, and that the project would put the spring at risk of drying up.
Andy Zdon, a hydrogeologist who led the study, analyzed water samples from the spring and determined that unlike other nearby springs, which are fed by rainfall that collects in relatively shallow underground sources, Bonanza Spring flows with water that comes from much deeper underground.
Zdon said the research points to a “hydraulic connection” between the spring and the aquifer that Cadiz intends to use, indicating the spring would probably be affected by the decline in the water table.
“The spring is going to be highly susceptible to drawdown from the pumping,” Zdon said. “It would likely dry up.”
The study, published Friday by Environmental Forensics, may be found here.
Cadiz officials, citing their own scientific studies, disagree that pumping the underground water would affect Bonanza Springs.
The spring in question is Bonanza Springs Watchable Wildlife Area, which is under the auspices of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
The newspaper produced this video about Bonanza Springs:
An article by KCET last year reported how frogs, birds and other wildlife ended up at Bonanza Springs:
There are tadpoles here. How did that happen? Regardless of their species, frogs and toads don’t travel far from water sources in the California deserts. Though there are plenty of springs dotted across the desert, the arid expanses that separate them pose certain death for any hapless frog that decides to travel from one spring to the next. These tadpoles and their descendants will either survive at Bonanza Spring or perish at Bonanza Spring, with little hope of escape should the spring cease to flow.
And yet you can find toads and treefrogs at springs and other permanent water sources across the Mojave, a constellation of scattered populations isolated from one another. How did they get there?
Some of them may descend from ancestors put there deliberately by people over the centuries, or whose eggs caught improbable rides on passing birds. But the most likely scenario is that the tadpoles at Bonanza Spring, and at other springs across the desert, descend from ancestors who got there on their own thousands of years ago, when the Mojave was very different.
The climate changed, causing the Mojave area to dry up about 8,000 years ago and stay that way since. Scientists say the Bonanza Springs site is a remnant of the region’s milder climate.
Cadiz Inc. recently received approval to build a water pipeline along a railroad right-of-way. California officials say they will fight the project on any portions of the pipeline that crosses its land.
It may take years in courtrooms to sort out this issue. In the meantime, enjoy the springs while you can. Bonanza Springs Watchable Wildlife Area is about 22 miles west of the Mountain Springs Road exit from Interstate 40, then another three miles north on Danby Road.
(Images of Bonanza Springs Watchable Wildlife Area by Bureau of Land Management via Flickr)
Just one more example of too many people wanting to use already limited resources. And few governments tell their citizens to have fewer chidren. Bad for getting re-elected.