All-American Canal Lining prompts many safety concerns
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 15, 2007 at 7:37 amThe lining of the All-American Canal in the Imperial Valley is now underway, and there are new concerns about safety:
From the Los Angeles Times:
About 23 miles of the canal are being lined with concrete to conserve water by preventing it from seeping into the ground. When the lining is complete, water will flow faster and the canal sides will be steeper, slicker and harder to scale. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation began work in June.
The original 1994 plan for the lining project called for “large mammal escape ridges,” or steps, to make it easier for both humans and animals to get out of the water. But the Bureau of Reclamation no longer intends to include escape ridges, saying they cause structural instability and leakage.
Critics of the lining say it is illegal to drop the safety provisions. And they say there are reasons, not stated in the official record, why the escape ridges aren’t being included. The canal, which is operated by the Imperial Irrigation District, runs parallel to the Mexican border — less than a mile from it in places — and is a long barrier to people trying to make their way north. …
Lining the earthen canal will provide California more water at a time when the state has been ordered to reduce its take from the Colorado River. The unlined canal has been losing millions of gallons a year to seepage. But that water has been flowing underground to Mexico, where it has sustained wetlands and been used by farmers since the early 1940s. When that supply dries up, critics of the lining project, including Mexican President Felipe Calderon, warn that fields will be fallowed, possibly prompting even more unemployed Mexicans to risk crossing the border and the canal.
“The lining ignores the serious environmental, safety or economic consequences to the region,” said Malissa Hathaway McKeith, a Los Angeles lawyer and Colorado River water expert who represented an alliance of Mexican business and environmental interests opposed to the lining.
To read the full text of the article from the Los Angeles Times, click here.
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