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QSA lawsuit to return to court in September; water rights also at issue

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 30, 2007 at 2:10 pm

From the Imperial Valley Press Online: A lawsuit regarding the controversial QSA pact is set to return to court soon. The QSA is not the only issue; what is at stake is whether water in the Imperial Valley will remain a public resource. From the article:

“What it comes down to is whether IID is the trustee of Imperial Valley’s water rights,” district spokesman Kevin Kelley said.

To some farmers who are part of a local organization called the Imperial Group, it’s a question of whether the IID board in signing the 2003 QSA negotiated a pact that best serves the interest of both landowners and the Valley as a whole. “Our fight is to keep the water rights pertinent to the land,” said Mike Morgan, a local farmer and a leading member of the Imperial Group.

Come Sept. 14 all parties involved in QSA litigation will be back in the Sacramento Superior Court to discuss how to move forward with the legal battle.

The controversial QSA pact was signed in 2003, and was designed to work out water issues so that water wars between agencies could be avoided. Some have questioned whether IID was acting in the best interest of the valley residents.

Morgan said the litigation is not meant to remove the district as the governing entity that holds the water rights in trust. What the litigation does seek, he said, is to have those water rights tied to the land rather than to the public. He acknowledges that would equate to water privatization. “People shouldn’t fear privatization,” Morgan said, adding if water rights were tied to the land that would serve as better protection of the Valley’s water rights. “It secures the water staying in the Valley,” Morgan said, adding the farming community would look to build up local communities rather than sell the water as some IID officials have alleged.

IID Director John Pierre Menvielle disagrees. He said there are those farmers, in particular those with the Imperial Group, who want to control the water supply so they can sell it.

The Imperial Irrigation District holds ‘present perfected’ rights to 3.1 million acre-feet of Colorado River water, more than any other state depending on the river. The water rights for the Imperial Valley predate later legislation, and in times of shortages, Imperial Valley would receive its water before other water right holders, including Metropolitan Water District.

To read the full text of the story from the Imperial Valley Press Online, click here.

August 30, 2007 · Filed Under Imperial Irrigation District & Imperial Valley