Cadiz Valley desert water-storage plan renewed

From Riverside’s Press-Enterprise:

The owners of remote desert land have revived a $200 million plan to store water underground to send to Southern California in dry times, although the region’s major water agency rejected the idea six years ago.

Cadiz Inc., owner of land and water rights in the Cadiz Valley about 40 miles east of Twentynine Palms, has secured a 99-year lease to use railroad right-of-way for a 42-mile pipeline connecting to the Colorado River Aqueduct, said Richard Stoddard, chief executive officer of a sister company, Cadiz Real Estate LLC, in a telephone interview.

Water would be diverted from the aqueduct into the Cadiz pipeline and injected into the ground for storage in an aquifer beneath the company’s land. When needed, the water would be returned to the aqueduct and could meet the needs of an estimated 1.2 million people in Southern California, the company contends.

Cadiz Inc.’s announcement surprised officials at Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the major buyer and distributor of water in the region. The district, which built and operates the 242-mile Colorado River Aqueduct that Cadiz wants to use, rejected a similar proposal in 2002 amid environmentalists’ opposition and concerns about costs. In addition, the Colorado River didn’t have surplus water to fill the Cadiz aquifer, district officials said.

“We don’t have any plans to proceed with the (Cadiz) project, and they haven’t discussed their new approach with us,” said Timothy F. Brick, Metropolitan’s board chairman.

And there is a lawsuit pending between Metropolitan & Cadiz regarding the 2002 plans for the project, which Metropolitan backed out of. Read more from the Press-Enterprise by clicking here.

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