April 10 , 2001 Plan to Funnel Colorado River Water Through Mojave Aquifers Draws Fire

SF Gate News

The landscape in this desert region is practically lunar -- a vast expanse of dunes, rocky flats and rugged peaks, unrelieved in its bleakness save for some creosote bushes and cholla cacti.

But while it may be sere as a sun-bleached bone, this land portends a new era in California water policy, one that may have as much impact on the state as the epoch of giant dams and great water aqueducts of the mid-20th century.

Much of the land around here is owned by Cadiz Inc., an agribusiness firm that farms 20,000 acres of cropland throughout California. The company grows about 1,600 acres of table grapes and citrus fruit near this desert hamlet from which it took its name.

But Cadiz hopes to sell more than fruit from these sandy soils.

It wants to sell water, millions of acre-feet of it. Its proposed customer: the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, an agency created by the state Legislature in 1928 that provides water to 17 million Southern Californians.

Tomorrow, MWD's directors will vote on a Cadiz plan to store water in the vast aquifer beneath its desert holdings, and transport it to the water agency during drought years.

If MWD approves the plan as expected, it will become full partners with Cadiz, agreeing to split $150 million in infrastructure costs as well as paying storage and transport fees for the water.

The proposed project has raised the hackles of environmentalists, who claim it will deplete underground reserves of ancient "indigenous" water that took millennia to accumulate.

Critics also claim that the project will contaminate the aquifer with salt water, cause severe dust storms on nearby dry lake beds, threaten rare desert bighorn sheep and taint water supplies with toxic Chromium 6.

More broadly, the plan has been condemned by public interest groups as an unsavory alliance between big business and state government that changes water from a public resource to a privately traded commodity.

Governor Gray Davis has endured severe criticism for his association with Cadiz.

One of the company's founders, Keith Brackpool, has been a significant contributor to Davis' campaigns and has advised the governor on water policy.

Cadiz executives counter that they are being unfairly pilloried for offering a unique solution to California's intractable water woes -- a solution, they say, that increases the flexibility of the state's water system and actually reduces the environmental impacts of water transport.

PIPELINE PART OF PLAN The basics of the plan are simple. Cadiz and MWD will construct a 35-mile pipeline from the Colorado River to Cadiz property, where 400 acres of "spreading ponds" will be constructed.

Under an agreement between the federal government and MWD that runs to 2015,

annual deliveries of 150,000 acre feet of Colorado River water can be made to the ponds during wet years. This water will percolate down to the aquifer, where it will be stored.

Cadiz will then pump the water to the MWD system during drought years, when the agency is hard pressed to meet customer requirements from its usual sources: the California Water Project, its standard Colorado River contracts and local surface reservoirs.

Cadiz will earn a fee whenever water is pumped from the Colorado, stored in the aquifer or transported to MWD, said Mark Liggett, a founder and senior vice president of the company.

"Mostly we'll be storing water," said Liggett, a geologist. "It's entirely possible we won't be withdrawing any water from the aquifer until 2015 or beyond."

THREAT TO AQUIFER But during dry years, Cadiz can pump more water than it banks -- much more, if an extended drought develops. Critics say that could deplete the aquifer.

"Their proposal is to put in a dab and take out a lot," said Elden Hughes, the chairman of the Sierra Club's California-Nevada desert committee.

"They say they'll pump 1 to 2 million acre-feet of water in a 50-year period, but the way the proposal is constructed, they could actually take that much in the first 25 years," Hughes said.

John Bredehoeft, a former regional water manager for the U.S. Geological Survey, said he estimated that the Cadiz aquifer recharged at the rate of 5, 000 to 6,000 acre-feet of water a year.

A "cone of depression," in the water table could therefore occur near the pump sites, Bredehoeft said. And as adjacent water drains into the cone, the entire water table could drop dramatically over a period of decades.

"Overdraft is the gut issue," he said. "Other possible impacts could include saltwater intrusion and drying out of soils at Bristol Lake and Cadiz Lake (nearby salt-encrusted dry lake beds). That could result in windblown dust. (Pumping) could also impact springs in nearby mountains where bighorn sheep live."

Liggett said Bredehoeft's analysis was not specific to the Cadiz area, and hence was unreliable.

"There is no doubt pumping can have delayed impacts on an aquifer, but we've been designing around this for five years, we'll have monitoring devices at each well, and all our worst-case scenarios show no significant impacts (on water level or salinity)," he said.

As for dust, Liggett cited current conditions. This weekend , strong winds generated huge clouds of dust from Bristol Lake.

"We obviously have nothing to do with that," he said. "And as far as springs go, the USGS's own maps show no permanent springs or streams in the (nearby) Marble Mountains (where bighorns live). The nearest significant spring is Bonanza Spring, which is much further away. We estimate no impact there."

Environmentalists have also cited Chromium 6, a toxic element made infamous in the film "Erin Brockovich," as a cause for concern in desert water. While acknowledging local water has Chromium 6 levels of 15 to 20 parts per billion (ppb), Liggett noted those readings were below federal standards of 100 ppb and state standards of 50 ppb.

PRIVATE VS. PUBLIC Still, the biggest problem facing Cadiz isn't the local environmental concerns. It's the perception that a private company is as influential in determining water policy as any public agency.

"Most of the water in California is publicly controlled," said Jay Watson, the western regional director for the Wilderness Society. "What we see with Cadiz is the privatization of a public resource. It sets a very scary precedent."

-- Anonymous, April 10, 2001