All-American Canal lining nearly finished
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 3, 2010 at 6:55 amFrom the Yuma Sun:
“Twenty-three miles may not seem like much.
But for a project to line a section of the All American Canal that snakes through the sand dunes west of Yuma, it’s meant 20 years in the making, legal challenges and the expenditure of $285 million.
After nearly three years of construction by two contractors working simultaneously, the project is expected to be completed by spring.
The payoff is the conservation of an estimated 67,700 acre-feet of water a year once lost through seepage – enough to meet the annual needs of 500,000 people. Most of the saved water will be delivered to San Diego as part of an agreement by that city to help fund the project. … “
Read more from the Yuma Sun by clicking here.
Dangerous waters: Making canal look ’safer’ increases hazard, says editorial
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 4, 2009 at 5:36 amFrom the North County Times,
“Advocates for those who illegally cross the U.S. border with Mexico protested Wednesday at the San Diego County Water Authority headquarters, demanding that additional safety measures be installed along the 82-mile All-American Canal to help prevent accidental drowning of people attempting to cross into this country.
The protesters want “climb-outs,” ropes and ladders installed along the canal’s length to help the unfortunate from being swept away by the dangerous and swift current.
We think their requests are misplaced, and that making the canal look “safer” will only cause more deaths.
While we do not wish ill or hazard on anyone, we are also at a loss to understand why the canal’s operators (the water authority and the Imperial Irrigation District) should make extraordinary efforts to aid the safety of people who voluntarily risk a dangerous crossing. … “
Read more from the North County Times by clicking here.
All-American Canal needs safety features to prevent drownings, activists say; Canal often crossed by illegal immigrants
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 3, 2009 at 7:37 amFrom the San Diego Union Tribune:
“The long-anticipated task of lining 23 miles of the All-American Canal in Imperial Valley with concrete is nearly complete, but controversy over the fallout of the project continues to simmer.
Human rights organizations and activists gathered Wednesday in front of the San Diego County Water Authority office in Kearny Mesa to protest what they said was a lack of adequate safety measures in the lined portion of the canal, which is regularly crossed by people being smuggled illegally into the country.
Seventeen body bags were laid on the ground outside the building, one for each drowning death in the canal since early August 2008, they said.
“It has become a mass graveyard,” said John Hunter, a San Diego physicist who volunteers setting up water stations in the desert. … “
Read more from the San Diego Union Tribune by clicking here.
From the North County Times:
” … Nearly 600 people have drowned in the canal over the years, mostly illegal immigrants from Mexico, according to the protesters. Since August, when the Water Authority was alerted to the problem, 17 people have drowned, the protesters said.
The protesters get their numbers from activist John Hunter, who says he has found the names for all the drowned going back to 1942. Hunter has posted them at www.allamericancanal.org.
The 82-mile canal runs from the Colorado River to the Imperial Irrigation District in the Imperial Valley. It parallels the U.S.-Mexico border most of the way, making it an obstacle illegal immigrants must cross. The Water Authority has paid to line 23 miles of the canal, which reduces loss from seepage.
Climb-outs, fences, ropes and buoy systems located near ladders are needed, said Rebecca Rauber, a spokeswoman for the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties.
“While we understand that each of us absolutely bears personal responsibility in the decisions we make, when our governments design systems and employ practices that have such devastating results as we see in the All-American Canal, the governments also have a shared responsibility to ensure public safety,” Rauber said. “If things can be done to save lives, why wouldn’t we do it?” … “
Read more from the North County Times by clicking here.
BORSTAR to conduct All-American Canal buoy tests Dec. 9
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 22, 2009 at 6:17 amFrom the Imperial Valley Press:
“A Border Patrol Search, Trauma and Rescue team will test buoy lines and other safety measures in the All-American Canal on Dec. 9.
Todd Shields, Imperial Irrigation District executive program manager for the All-American Canal Lining Project, said BORSTAR will analyze the best angles to string the buoys.
“The different angles are being tested,” he said. “As someone hits the buoy line, they would move down the buoy line and downstream.” The angled buoy lines would allow the canal’s current to push a person toward the canal’s southern shore, Shields said.
He said amber strobe lights and glow-in-the-dark paint on ladders will be evaluated during a night-time BORSTAR test on Dec. 9. … “
Read more from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
Swim the All-American Canal at your own risk, says editorial
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 21, 2009 at 7:14 amFrom the Imperial Valley Press, this editorial:
“Some people who try to swim the All-American Canal drown. It is unfortunate, but it is true.
But we don’t think any safety measures put in place would ever satisfy John Hunter and others who want the canal to be safer for immigrants who have entered the country illegally and swim the canal.
Hunter and another man jumped into the All-American earlier this week to put safety buoys in the canal (wearing wetsuits and swim fins). Their point was to get a citation and some publicity. It worked, as this newspaper was there. As a news event, canal safety is worth covering. We also understand that many people are driven by a need to protect human life, and that is to be respected.
But we are also wary of these types of “events.” … “
Read more of this editorial by clicking here.
Mexican consulate to reveal new All-American Canal safety campaign
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 13, 2009 at 10:20 pmFrom the Imperial Valley Press:
“The Mexican consulate, along with the Imperial Irrigation District and San Diego County Water Authority will reveal a new educational campaign about the dangers of attempting to cross the All-American Canal. IID board members got a preview at Tuesday’s meeting, where they expressed support for the campaign.
“To think we don’t bear some responsibility on this issue would be shallow thinking,” IID Director Mike Abatti said.
The campaign will feature a combination of fliers, signs and public service announcements designed to reduce drowning deaths in the canal. Further details will be announced in Calexico on Wednesday, as part of an event put on by the Mexican consulate. …”
Imperial Irrigation District to test All-American Canal safety features
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 9, 2009 at 6:03 am
From the Imperial Valley Press:
The Imperial Irrigation District will be able to add safety features to the All-American Canal following recent approval from the Bureau of Reclamation.
IID water manager Mike King said the water department will immediately begin working with IID’s partners on the canal, including the San Diego County Water Authority, on a program that will test the effectiveness of different safety features, such as ropes, buoys and ladders.
“We will be moving forward on that,” King said.
Since 2006, at least 26 people have drowned in the canal. When it was lined in 2007, ladders were added to the smooth cement sides, but even strong swimmers would have trouble fighting the canal’s current and reaching the sides unaided.
Read more from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
More migrants drowning while crossing into U.S.
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 18, 2009 at 6:25 am
From the Imperial Valley Press:
It was the middle of the night when U.S. Border Patrol surveillance camera operators spotted Cesar Coriche Flores’ group heading north toward the All-American Canal. When agents arrived on the scene, they picked up five people on land and found two more still in the water. They learned one member of the group was missing.
Despite a search, agents came up empty. It wasn’t until more than 48 hours later, on June 8, that Coriche Flores’ body was discovered in the Briar Main Canal east of here by an Imperial Irrigation District employee. At 18 years old, he was the youngest person to drown trying to cross into Imperial County illegally this year, but in most respects his death was unexceptional.
Drowning is the leading cause of immigrant deaths in the county, accounting for 37 out of 65 reported deaths since 2007, according to data compiled by the Mexican Consulate in Calexico. For the years 1999 to 2007, “climate conditions” like dehydration and frostbite had been the most likely cause of border deaths.
In the county overall deaths along the border, though, are down sharply from earlier in the decade. Imperial County had a high of 113 reported deaths in 2001, compared with 27 last year, according to the consulate.
Jesús Gutiérrez, who handles immigrant death cases for the consulate here, believes added fencing in the desert has helped reduce deaths. But by making it more difficult to cross illegally over remote stretches of the desert, the fence also has funneled smugglers to the waterways, he said, leading in part to the increased ratio of drowning deaths. Prompted by the trend, the consulate is planning to debut a publicity campaign in August that focuses on the dangers of the canals, Gutiérrez said.
Read more from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
Bureaucracy stalls All-American Canal safety measures
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 7, 2009 at 7:10 am
From the Imperial Valley Press:
Since 1943, 530 people have drowned in the All-American Canal, and husband and wife John and Laura Hunter have been pushing the Imperial Irrigation District to stop that number from climbing.
But IID water manager Mike King said that the decision to include safety features, such as ropes and buoys, along the canal ultimately rests with the Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the canal. “We need to get approval from the bureau,” King said.
In August, at the urging of John Hunter, the IID sent a letter to the San Diego County Water Authority, a partner in the recent lining of the All-American Canal, asking if it was interested in adding safety measures. In February, San Diego responded, and the IID then sent a letter to the Bureau requesting permission to add safety features.
Hunter, who attended last week’s board meeting seeking an update, said that someone needs to take concrete action on the issue. “Is there going to be any progress or are we just going to pass the potato around?” he asked IID board members at the meeting.
Read more from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
Lined All-American Canal ends seepage, saving water; San Diego County to gain, Mexican farmers, wetlands to lose
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 3, 2009 at 6:44 amFrom the San Diego Union Tribune:
It seemed like such a simple idea at the time: Line a porous earthen canal with concrete and ship the saved water to San Diego and other thirsty coastal cities.
But to pull off the Imperial Valley project, it took an urgent act of Congress, court rulings settling cross-border disputes, a seven-state agreement to share the Colorado River and at least $170 million of state taxpayer money. Twenty-one years after its first serious incarnation, a new 23-mile, lined segment of the All-American Canal is being celebrated – and lamented. Top officials with the San Diego County Water Authority attended a dedication ceremony last week outside El Centro.
In addition to the state money, the water authority spent $130 million for an extra 66,000 acre-feet of water annually, or enough to supply about 132,000 households a year. The deal for the water will last 110 years. “Right now, it’s very difficult to find a reliable supply for that long,” said Halla Razak, who oversees Colorado River programs for the authority.
But the project threatens to dry up valuable groundwater used by farmers and wildlife in Mexico. For decades, the seepage from the canal flowed south to irrigate fields and nourish wetlands. “At this stage of the game, I am 50 years old, and I can’t get work elsewhere – all I know is farming,” said Nazario Ortiz, who heads a communal farming group a few miles from the canal that is dependent on seepage.
Read more from the San Diego Union Tribune by clicking here. Here’s also a great slideshow on the canal and the Imperial Valley, also from the U-T.
Officials celebrate project to cut water loss on All-American Canal
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 2, 2009 at 7:53 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
At a patch of desert 35 miles east of El Centro and barely 50 yards north of the metal fence that separates the United States and Mexico, officials of several sometimes warring water agencies came together to celebrate the nearly completed project to line 23 miles with concrete to prevent seepage. The section was considered the leakiest part of the earthen canal.
The project is part of an agreement under which the Imperial Irrigation District, the canal’s operator, grudgingly agreed to sell some of its mammoth share of the Colorado River to water-deprived San Diego County. The cost of the $300-million project was split between the state government and the San Diego County Water Authority.
Lester A. Snow, director of the California Department of Water Resources, praised more than 300 officials and others at the ceremony for overcoming numerous political, legal and financial problems when much of state government seems paralyzed. He joked that he was carrying a message from the governor: “Congratulations on finally getting something done in this state.”
Lining the earthen canal is seen as a major step toward Southern California learning to live within a “water budget” instead of looking to the Colorado River or Northern California for more water.
“The era of limits on the Colorado River imposes new expectations — and responsibilities — on all water users,” said Brian Brady, general manager of the Imperial Irrigation District.
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
It’s official: All-American Canal lining completed
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 1, 2009 at 8:19 am
From the Imperial Valley Press:
It was in the 1980s that Congress first authorized the lining of the All-American Canal.
It was 1994 when IID water manager Mike King first was assigned to the project. Construction didn’t start on the lining of the nearly century-old canal until June 2007, after a lawsuit that froze the process was lifted.
And Thursday, representatives and officials from the Imperial Irrigation District, San Diego County Water Authority, the Bureau of Reclamation, the California Department of Water Resources, Imperial County and multiple other agencies attended the official dedication of the newly finished canal.
“This project is the shining example of the good that can be done when you take something old and make it new again,” IID board President Jim Hanks said at the ceremony.
The lining on the 23-mile stretch of the canal is estimated to save about 67,700 acre-feet of water a year, which will be sent to San Diego County Water Authority and the tribes that make up the San Luis Rey Indian Water Authority.
Read more from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
“A long strange lining it’s been” writes the Imperial Valley Press in this related story about the controversies and conflicts the project faced on this side of the border:
It seems that at one point or another, nearly every group within the Imperial Valley took issue with the All-American Canal-lining project, from local farmers, to Mexico, to Imperial County itself.
IID Director John Pierre Menvielle, speaking at the dedication ceremony for the canal-lining project Thursday, said the final completion of the project was “a very historic event.”
“We had a lot of hard work by a lot of people to get to this point in time,” Menvielle said.
Read the full text of this article from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
So while it’s good news for some that the project is finished, not so for others. Here’s what the Mexican president said about the project two years ago, which will have devastating affects for some on the other side of the border – click here.
All-American Canal lining finished
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 18, 2009 at 7:32 am
From the Imperial Valley Press:
The All-American Canal lining is essentially finished, bringing to a close a project 20 years in the making. “It’s a very exciting time for us,” said Halla Razak, the San Diego County Water Authority’s director of Colorado River programs.
The water saved from the lining of the canal will be transferred to San Diego as part of the Quantification Settlement Agreement signed in 2003. Razak said that while the project has been in the design and planning stages for 20 years, it was the QSA that brought San Diego on board.
In exchange for the estimated 67,700 acre-feet of water from the lining, San Diego County Water Authority agreed to pay part of the project’s $285 million cost. The other part was paid for by the state. The Imperial Irrigation District oversaw the construction, where 23 miles of the canal were lined with concrete, stretching from Pilot Knob to Drop 3.
“This is a very secure supply of water for San Diego,” Razak said, something that was becoming increasingly important with the ongoing drought in the state. San Diego will get the transferred water for 110 years.
Read more from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
All American Canal set to open April 30
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 11, 2009 at 6:19 amFrom the Yuma Sun:
After almost two years of work lining the All American Canal with concrete, the canal will be opened on April 30. The 23-mile canal will be put in operation that day, but the project itself will not be completed until next year, said Kevin Kelly, spokesperson for the Imperial Irrigation District, which is the agency leading the project.
“The main aspects of construction are finished but it will be a year from now, give or take a few months, when the project will be completely finished,” said Kelly.
“Close to $285 million have been invested on the project,” said Kelly, who added the district has already run water through the canal to test it and there have been no problems in its operation.
He pointed out the importance of the project – it will save close to 69,600 acre-feet of water each year, which is currently lost to seepage.
Read more from the Yuma Sun by clicking here.
Blue Gold: Have the next resource wars begun? Article covers transboundary water issues, including the All-American Canal
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 31, 2009 at 11:22 amHere’s an article written by AlterNet’s Tara Lohan, posted over at The Nation, which covers some transboundary water issues. This is an excerpt on the section regarding the U. S. and Mexico, specifically the Colorado River and the All-American Canal:
Most people in the United States have the luxury of not worrying about the right to water–it simply comes out of their tap, and it is clean and plentiful. The idea of a “water war” would likely conjure places like the Middle East or Africa. But in the last few years there has been some real tension between the United States and Mexico.
The source of strife is the long-arbitrated Colorado River, which flows 1,450 miles, and whose watershed spreads across seven US states before dipping into Mexico and exiting at the Gulf of California. Just about every drop of it is allocated (and overallocated). Its water serves over 30 million people and 2 million acres of farmland, and via canals and aqueducts, it helps to quench thirsty cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix and Los Angeles.
Under the Mexican Water Treaty of 1944 the United States agreed to ensure its southern neighbor 1.5 million acre-feet of water a year. However, for many decades those south of the border often got more than the treaty allotment if the flow on the river exceeded the water farmers could use. Mexico and the river ecosystem came to greatly appreciate that water, as well as goundwater that was replenished from water seepage draining from the All-American Canal–an eighty-two-mile ditch that runs just north of the border and diverts water from the Colorado River across the desert of Southern California to feed farms in the Imperial Valley.
But nearly a decade of drought in the Southwest has prompted Colorado River states to find ways to squeeze more water out of the river. They devised a plan to line twenty-three miles of the All-American Canal with concrete to prevent water seepage and also to build a reservoir just north of the border to catch those “excess” flows.
Read the full text of this article from The Nation by clicking here.
All-American Canal lining project on schedule, panel told
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 5, 2009 at 5:33 amFrom the Yuma Sun:
The concrete lining of the All American Canal remains on schedule to be completed in March 2010, members of an advisory panel to the International Boundary and Water Commission were told this week.
The first eight miles of newly lined canal bed should be ready for use in about a month and a half, and another 10 miles should be ready two weeks later, Todd Shields, project manager for the Imperial Irrigation District, told members of the Colorado River Citizens Advisory Forum to the commission.
District officials figure the 23-mile lining project will conserve about 67,700 acre-feet of water lost annually due to seepage into the ground. One acre-foot equals 325,851 gallons.
The canal, which parallels the U.S.-Mexican border west of Yuma, irrigates 500,000 acres of farmland and provides water to nine California cities.
Read more from the Yuma Sun by clicking here.
Court rejects POWER appeal of All-American Canal case
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 30, 2008 at 7:58 amFrom the Imperial Valley Press:
One of the groups suing the Imperial Irrigation District has suffered a setback.
POWER, which stands for Protect Our Water and Environmental Rights, initially sued the IID claiming environmental reviews on the All-American Canal were not adequate. It had two appeals to its case denied Friday.
“This means POWER lost again. What a surprise,” said IID Board President John Pierre Menvielle.
The lawsuits were initially filed in 2006 by brothers Mike and Jimmy Abatti, members of POWER. Mike Abatti later dropped his involvement in the lawsuits after he was elected to the IID board.
Read more from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
Profligate water use in the U.S. is fueling the flight of Mexicans across the border
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 12, 2008 at 5:32 amFrom AlterNet:
On October 21, 2008, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne inaugurated the ground breaking of the new Imperial Valley water reservoir near the U.S.-Mexico border. The 500-acre $172.2-million reservoir, to be completed in August 2010, will store surplus Colorado River water for use by coastal Southern California, southern Nevada, and central Arizona; previously this water had been flowing to Mexico and used by its cities and thousands of Mexican farmers.
This reservoir, along with the $250 million project to line a 23-mile stretch of the All-American Canal, also in the Imperial Valley, with concrete to prevent water seepage to an underground aquifer, Mexicali Valley aquifer, which is used currently by Mexican cities and farmers, means that there will be substantially less water from the Colorado River and dire consequences for Mexico.
An estimated 67,000 acre-feet of water seeps from the canal annually. In 2006, the Mexican government and two California environmental groups filed a lawsuit to stop the canal-lining project-ultimately unsuccessful. This captured seepage water will be sent to San Diego for municipal use. Now, Mexico has even less water to use, although theoretically it will still get its share of water of 1.5 million acre-feet under the 1944 treaty. The new Imperial Valley reservoir and the All-American Canal lining are two nails in the coffin of Mexico’s water future. The triumphant U.S. water and irrigation districts, the winners of the two latest battles in the U.S.-Mexico water wars, are gloating over their victory in capturing the last drops of water in the Colorado River before they reach Mexico. Now, in the drought-stricken southwest, they can continue to irrigate vast corporate farms planted with thirsty crops, hose millions of suburban lawns, sprinkle golf courses, and fill tens of thousands of private swimming pools.
Read more from AlterNet by clicking here.
San Diego to pay emissions fines from All American Canal lining project
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 21, 2008 at 6:11 amFrom the Imperial Valley Press:
The Imperial Irrigation District reached a settlement with the county’s Air Pollution Control District over alleged permit and emission violations in the All-American Canal lining project. As part of the agreement, reached Monday with the pollution district’s hearing board, the IID will compensate the county for dust and vehicle emissions from construction equipment. However, the funds to do so won’t come out of the IID’s pocket.
“The money paid to the county comes from the San Diego County Water Authority,” said Jeff Garber, IID’s legal counsel.
Since the canal-lining project is part of the water conservation efforts within the quantification settlement agreement, San Diego is required to pay for environmental mitigation measures.
The issue started when the pollution district alleged the IID, along with the construction companies, “are and continue to be in violation of (Imperial County Air Pollution Control) District rules, state laws and regulations, and federal Clean Air Act requirements by installing, constructing and operating the (All-American Canal lining project) engines/equipment units without first applying for and obtaining required permits,” according to an order of abatement filed against the IID.
Read more from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
IID agrees to added safety measures for All-American canal lining project
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 6, 2008 at 6:50 amFrom the Imperial Valley Press:
To John Hunter the fight to add safety measures along the lining of the All-American Canal is a 15-round bout.
In his words, he just won Round 5 on Tuesday as the Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors unanimously approved writing a letter to the San Diego County Water Authority and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to consider Hunter’s safety proposal. “We just won the fifth round. … Now we’ve got 10 more rounds to go,” Hunter said.
Hunter has been pushing for a 23-mile segment of the All-American Canal to have added safety features that would include a buoy system strung along the canal, fencing and attached ridges that would allow people and large animals to climb out. The estimated cost of the safety measures is $3 million on top of the $280 million for the canal lining project.
“I think this goes a long way in showing the way we value life,” said IID Director Mike Abatti of the proposal.
Read more from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
Buoys considered for deadly border canal
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 5, 2008 at 11:24 amFrom the San Francisco Chronicle:
When crews finish lining part of the All-American Canal with concrete, the waterway will be deeper, faster — and possibly more of a death trap for migrants crossing the border illegally from Mexico.
The agency responsible for lining 23 miles of the canal to conserve water for Southern Californians is having second thoughts about whether it has done enough to prevent drownings on a waterway that has claimed more than 500 lives since it was built in 1942.
The Imperial Irrigation District is scheduled to consider Tuesday whether to install ladders on each side and buoys every 150 feet along the concrete lining and add patches of bolted, synthetic cleats. The changes would represent a mid-construction shift on the $285 million project, which began in July 2007 and is scheduled to finish in 2010. Current construction plans call for installing ladders every 250 feet on alternating sides.
The district’s endorsement would represent a modest victory for an unusual alliance of Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, an immigration hard-liner, and his brother John, who has installed water jugs in the Southern California desert since the late 1990s to aid dehydrated border crossers. “We won the fifth round,” said John Hunter. “We still have 10 rounds to go.”
The San Diego County Water Authority, which is paying for much of the project, believes the measures may encourage migrants to cross illegally, said Halla Razak, the agency’s Colorado River programs director. “We believe these kind of measures just provide a false sense of security,” she said. “The canal should not appear like a swimming pool that people can jump and swim across easily.”
Read the full text of this story from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.
All American Canal lining is added threat
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 2, 2008 at 7:23 amFrom the Imperial Valley Press:
The roar of the water rushing through the gates is only muted by the gravel crunched beneath the tires of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicle navigating the banks along the rushing canal. In the murky green waters below, abandoned rafts and tire tubes bob in the water, caught in a red buoy line strung across the All-American Canal. The occupants of the rafts, most likely Mexican nationals searching for a way to penetrate the desolate border here, are gone.
They might have found a way out of the water safely. But if they entered the canal a few miles to the east the worst-case scenario, John Hunter said, is that they lost their lives by drowning in what he views to be a giant death trap.
“There’s no redeeming features to drowning Mexicans or law enforcement,” Hunter, of San Diego, said. “They cannot be allowed to die like dogs.”
The dangers of the All-American Canal are indisputable, officials said. More than 500 people have died in the last 35 years, and according to published reports, just this year at least five suspected illegal immigrants have lost their lives or disappeared beneath the placid surface of the water.
Now it poses an additional threat as newly constructed portions of the All-American have steeper sides and the concrete lining could be nearly impossible to scale. The water will gush faster through the channel, making the current even swifter. More people will die, Hunter claims.
After years of debate, the Imperial Irrigation District board is starting to side with Hunter and is urging San Diego County Water Authority to add more safety features to the project that is meant to conserve water for transfer to the coast.
“Sitting up here, we can do something about it,” IID Director Mike Abatti said at a recent board meeting. “It should be safer. It’s going to be here another 100 years.”
Read more from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
Crews excavating tons of sand for All American Canal lining
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 14, 2008 at 6:27 amFrom the Yuma Sun:
Shape-shifters in the form of huge, lumbering earth movers have been busily at work on the dunes west of Yuma a year into a massive project on the All American Canal. The project includes construction of a 23-mile concrete-lined segment of the All American Canal to run parallel to the existing earthen canal stretching from a mile west of Pilot Knob to Drop 3. A reservoir also is being constructed near Gordon’s Well to hold about 8,000 acre-feet of water, mainly to regulate the lower Colorado River operation.
It is considered one of the largest water conservation programs in the nation, said Kevin Kelley, spokesman for Imperial Irrigation District, which operates the canal under a contract with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Built in the 1930s, the All American Canal runs adjacent to the international border in Southern California, carrying about 3.1 million acre-feet of water a year from the Colorado River to the Imperial Valley. Replacement of the 23-mile eastern segment of earthen canal with the lined canal is expected to save 67,700 acre-feet of water a year. That would be enough water to supply the annual needs of about 500,000 people in Southern California.
That segment of the 82-mile canal was selected for the work because it winds across the sand dunes, resulting in substantial water loss from seepage through the sandy soil. “That’s the section with the greatest identifiable seepage,” Kelley said.
Read the full text of this article from the Yuma Sun by clicking here.
Judge rejects delay to All-American Canal work
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 29, 2008 at 6:33 amFrom the Imperial Valley Press Online:
A request from opponents to the All-American Canal lining project to prevent the flow of water into the new channel was denied by a state appellate judge last week.
Jim Abatti, a member of Protect Our Water and Energy Rights, said the lawsuit did not attempt to stall the project. Abatti said the request asked that water not be diverted into the newly lined canal until safety measures were put into place to save lives. “It’s already a dangerous canal now,” Abatti said of the earthen canal. “There is no dollar on anything I’m suing for. I’m suing on the principle of making sure they do things right.”
At the center of the debate is whether the new canal, which is already under construction and scheduled to come on line in 2010, should have ridges in the concrete sides to allow animals or humans who fall in a chance to get out.
Imperial Irrigation District spokesman Kevin Kelley said the ridges presented a structural flaw to the district and other agencies lining the canal. “Those ridges were eliminated based on the input of all the project partners including the Bureau of Reclamation,” Kelley said.
The construction of the canal includes metal ladders that have been placed on alternating sides of the canal every 250 feet.
Read the full text of this story from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
Looming water issues on both sides of our borders foreshadow big problems
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 10, 2008 at 1:10 pmFrom Earthnews:
Adaptation, or the matter of adjusting to climate change, is sometimes called a cheaper, easier way to deal with some of the consequences of a warming world. But consider the battle between the United States, Mexico and Canada that was triggered here amid the vegetable farms near the California border.
For more than 60 years the family of Geronimo Hernandez has raised watermelons, peppers and other crops in the rich, irrigated soil of Mexicali Valley, but within the next five years it could begin to dry up.
That would leave Hernandez, 62, and 400 other farmers in a desert with no jobs, victims of new efforts by the United States to plug some of the leaks in the Colorado River system that provides water to much of the drought-stricken Southwest. That issue, in turn, has raised the hackles of Canada, where groups worry that the next U.S. move will be to come after Canada’s ample supplies of fresh water.
While politicians in the United States focus on what Congress might do to curb greenhouse gases in the future, many scientists worry how nations will respond to climate changes that are already under way.
In the recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, climate scientists concluded that conserving water will be essential and that North America may find it easier to adapt than other parts of the world because it has “responsive” governments and more robust economies.
“The literature provides high agreement and much evidence of many options for achieving reductions of global GHG (greenhouse gases) emissions at the international level through cooperation,” the panel found. But if the mess that involves Hernandez is any guide, adaptation will be slow, shrill, expensive and politically ugly.
The situation Hernandez is referencing in the above excerpt is the lining of the All-American canal. The reservoir mentioned in the article is the Drop 2 reservoir. This is causing some difficulties for Mexico as they are seeing water they have come to rely on dry up.
But our water woes are cause for concern in Canada, as well, and apparently, the idea of a large system to move water from Canada to the U.S. is at least being discussed in some circles (also see this related WaterWired post):
The White House asked the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a private Washington research group, to do a study. Last April Peschard-Sverdrup, a senior associate with the center, brought a team of Mexican and U.S. experts to Calgary, Canada, along with a position paper suggesting that the three countries might consider “water transfers and artificial diversions of fresh water” to head off future water disputes.
The Council of Canadians, a nationalist group, leaked the paper to the press calling it “damning evidence” of “secret talks” aimed at getting access to Canadian water. Maude Barlow, chairman of the group, sees a plot. “It [water] will be taken from the North. It will require a great engineering feat to build pipelines. There will be very big opposition to this when it happens.”
Peschard-Sverdrup said this is nonsense. “They do that for fund-raising purposes,” he asserts, referring to the council. But the Council of Canadians’ move rattled the Canadian government, which refused to participate in the study or to send federal officials to participate in the Calgary talks.
The Conference Board of Canada, a private Ottawa research group similar to the CSIS, refused to be a cosponsor of the study. Instead it released its own, noting that while Canada has about 20 percent of the world’s fresh water, much of it is locked up in glaciers in the far north. Gilles Rheaume, a vice president of the conference board, said: “We’re looking at the question, ‘Do we really have a lot of water to sell?’ The answer is no.”
One of his group’s concerns is that if, somehow, Canadian water was fed to the thirsty and rapidly growing cities of the U.S. Southwest, there will be no end to the demand. The U.S. Census Bureau, the Conference Board notes, expects the population of Nevada and Arizona to double by 2030. “Our question is whether there should be limitations on continuing this development. It’s a harsh reality, but it has to be considered,” Rheaume said.
Read the rest of this story from Earth News by clicking here.
Baja California governor protests the lining of the All-American Canal while in Washington D.C.
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 26, 2008 at 9:26 amFrom the Imperial Valley Press:
Baja California’s governor protested the cement lining of the All-American Canal while in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, according to Mexican news media.
During the Winter National Governor’s Association meeting here this weekend Gov. Jose Guadalupe Osuna Millán reportedly complained that the encasement is negatively impacting agricultural and economic activity in the Mexicali Valley.
Osuna privately met with Department of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne on Sunday and discussed “water issues along the U.S.-Mexico border,” confirmed Shane Wolfe, a spokesman for Kempthorne. Details on that discussion were not being released as it is the department’s policy not to publicize details of the secretary’s private discussions with governors.
Mexican and Baja California lawsuits had held up construction of the lining for about year. The cement lining of a 23-mile stretch of the canal is under way to recapture 67,000 acre-feet of water per year that would otherwise seep into the Mexicali Valley. Construction began in July and is expected to be completed before the decade’s end, said Kevin Kelley, spokesman for the Imperial Irrigation District. The IID manages the U.S.-owned canal and is the lead agency in the lining’s construction.
Kelley said Mexican opposition to the canal is expected. “It isn’t surprising because there have been ongoing discussions at diplomatic levels … since the project began,” he said.
Water flows through the unlined All-American Canal from Imperial Dam to the Imperial Valley, and seepage from that canal has replenished the aquifer that sits underneath a productive Mexican agricultural region just across the border. The loss of the seepage will have a direct, negative impact on the agricultural area on the other side.
The Imperial Valley farmers have signed the QSA agreement to transfer water to urban areas, and the lining of the canal and the resultant water savings make up a significant portion of the water being transferred to San Diego.
You can read more about this debate by checking out the All-American Canal category here on Aquafornia. Choose from the list of categories on the right, or click here.
A meeting with Mexican & United States water and diplomatic officials is scheduled for March 11th in Phoenix. Get the rest of the story from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
Imperial County files complaint against All-American canal contractor
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 31, 2007 at 5:56 amFrom the Imperial Valley Press Online:
Imperial County has filed an official complaint through the state Superior Court against a construction company for what the county claims are equipment and air violations in the construction of the All-American Canal lining project.
On Tuesday, the county confirmed that a complaint had been filed against Phoenix-based Ames Construction. The complaint does not legally halt construction on the project. “They’re operating internal combustion engines — pumps, generators — and they don’t feel they need to have district permits that we require,” said Imperial County Air Pollution Control District Officer Steve Birdsall. “We disagree.
“We’re trying to protect our air quality,” Birdsall said. “We’re treating them no differently than we’re treating anyone else.”
To read the full text of this article from the Imperial Valley Press Online, click here.
Imperial Valley Press: don’t stall the All American canal project
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 18, 2007 at 1:29 pmFrom the Imperial Valley Press Online, yesterday’s paper ran a story on how authorities were looking into air quality violations around the construction site:
The county and Imperial Irrigation District claim they want to get this problem cleared up quickly so it won’t affect the project. The IID said it does, of course, want the law followed.
We understand that, as we also want the law followed. Poor air quality in Imperial County is an ongoing problem. The county is correct when it says if it doesn’t enforce compliance, someone else will. And we don’t need the state or federal government coming in to bog things down even more.
But this strikes us as a bit futile at best. First, when you are doing construction work in the middle of the desert there will be some blowing dust no matter how much you water the ground. This is an arid environment and it will always be dusty. We all understand that because we live with it every day.
To read the full text of the editorial from the Imperial Valley Press Online, click here.
All-American Canal lining project could be facing a new challenge: air pollution
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 17, 2007 at 10:54 pmFrom the Imperial Valley Press Online:
While lawsuits may no longer be holding up the project to build a cement-lined All-American Canal, a new controversy is emerging that could slow the $300 million project. The issue is over the alleged pollution one contractor — actually two companies working in partnership, Ames Construction of Phoenix and Coffman Specialties of San Diego — is generating.
The question is whether the companies are violating California air-quality protection laws as they work on the project to line a 23-mile stretch of the canal in the Valley’s east desert.
A second contractor working on the AAC project, Kiewit-Pacific Co. of Vancouver, Wash., is not facing scrutiny by the county.
To read the full text of the article from the Imperial Valley Press Online, click here.
All-American Canal safety issues still debated
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 29, 2007 at 7:23 amSafety issues take center stage in the continuing debate over the All-American canal lining project in this story from the Imperial Valley Press Online:
Already the safety issue has been a subject of legal battles at the state and federal court levels even as the work to build the canal has started this summer. Congressman Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, who used to represent the Imperial Valley before redistricting — and who is now a presidential candidate — sent a letter to IID June 13 questioning what he considers a lack of safety measures built into the new canal project.
Just days ago IID responded to Hunter. In the letter signed by IID board President Stella Mendoza, she says: “It is my belief that safety measures incorporated into the existing design specifications adequately address the need to provide for the public’s health and welfare.”
The original project called for escape ridges to be built into the side of the canal, but the Bureau of Reclamation, which is responsible for the canal, determined the ridges would make the canal structurally unsound, and so removed them from the plan:
IID officials say the decision on whether to include escape ridges rests with the bureau. It is not a decision IID, which operates the canal and is construction manager over the canal-lining project, could make on its own, district officials say.
The one safety measure in the project involves the placement of “escape” ladders that will be positioned 375 feet a part. IID officials have said they believe the ladders are an adequate safety measure. Hunter, whose brother John Hunter has been a leading voice in the Valley for immigrant safety — doesn’t think the ladders are sufficient. Duncan Hunter, like his brother, says IID should add other safety measures. “These measures include fencing, rope and buoy systems, tapered concrete sides as well as more frequent ladders,” Hunter says in his letter to the district.
To read the full text of the article from the Imperial Valley Press Online, click here.
LA Times Editorial on All-American Canal safety: crossing border should not be a death sentence
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 21, 2007 at 7:47 amFrom the LA Times Opinion Pages, regarding the All-American Canal lining project:
A study by state and federal public health officials concluded that steps should be built into the canal sides to avoid drownings of humans and large mammals, but the federal Bureau of Reclamation refuses to include them, saying they would cause structural instability and leakage. Meanwhile, the Imperial Irrigation District, which operates the canal, has refused to add even such basic safety measures as lifelines — cables with buoys that cross the canal, which people can grab to avoid being swept away. The district’s bizarre justification is that adding lifelines would increase its liability, which is like saying you shouldn’t throw a buoy to a drowning man because he might sue you if he survives. Other parts of the canal have lifelines to protect district workers.
It’s hard to escape the conclusion that the water district’s board is more concerned about illegal immigration than about human lives. Border security is a good thing, but crossing shouldn’t be a death sentence. Even Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter of El Cajon, who is no friend to illegal immigrants, is appalled by the drownings; last month he wrote a letter to water officials calling the deaths “a costly consequence to past indifference.”
To read the full text of this opinion piece from the LA Times, click here.
Third lawsuit against All-American canal lining project is dismissed
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 17, 2007 at 12:32 pmFrom the Imperial Valley Press Online:
As work has begun on building a cement-lined All-American Canal, the courts have issued a third defeat to a group opposed to the project. The ruling has left the group called Protect Our Water and Environmental Rights wondering where its case can be heard as both the state and federal courts have now said they have no jurisdiction over the matter. “I guess you can’t get it heard,” said local farmer Jim Abatti, brother of IID Director Mike Abatti, and a member of POWER.
This lawsuit focused on safety issues in the construction of the canal. Previous lawsuits have focused on the environmental issues south of the border, but were also dismissed. Seepage from the unlined canal has been feeding an aquifer which serves one of the most productive agricultural regions in Mexico. The raised water table has benefited wildlife habitats as well. Read more
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.
Work begins on All-American canal lining project
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 1, 2007 at 9:57 amAfter a year’s delay while several legal challenges were resolved, work has begun on lining a 23-mile section of the All-American canal. The All-American canal delivers Colorado River water to irrigate farmland and for municipal use in Imperial County.
From the Yuma Sun:
When completed, the two-year project is expected to save 67,700 acre-feet of water a year now lost because of seepage, Kelly said. One acre-foot of water is considered enough for a family of four for a year. But it was that very seepage that led to legal challenges and the delay. Environmentalists and businesses on both sides of the border claimed that the seepage from the 70-year-old canal has become a vital water source for the Mexicali Valley aquifer. However, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco lifted its injunction last month, clearing the way for the project to proceed, said Kelley.
To read the full text of the article from the Yuma Sun, click here.
The project is part of the effort to reduce water consumption to comply with a multi-state pact to reduce California’s use of Colorado River water and live within it’s 4.4 million acre-feet allocation. Urban users in San Diego will be the prime beneficiary of the saved water.
All-American Canal lining project set to begin this week
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 5, 2007 at 10:11 amThis from the North County Times:
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday denied a petition by the city of Calexico to reconsider the court’s April 6 ruling allowing the project to go forward, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
The city had argued that its residents would be harmed economically and environmentally by the lining project. Calexico is heavily dependent on cross- border commerce from neighboring Mexicali and has joined efforts with a Mexicali business group and California environmentalists in opposing the lining.
The project could save 56,000 acre feet of water from seeping into the ground every year. But in doing so, Mexican farmers will lose that ground water they have counted on for decades.
The lining opponents have said they are prepared to take their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Calexico City Attorney Jennifer Lyon said last week that “all litigation strategies will be discussed with my council on June 5,” the newspaper reported.
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