The Cadiz Water Project: Important Questions Answered
The Cadiz Valley Water Conservation, Recovery and Storage Project will conserve billions of gallons of water lost annually to high-salinity and evaporation in the eastern Mojave Desert and create a new, reliable water supply and groundwater storage for Southern California.
The Project has been under development since 2009 and has achieved numerous permitting milestones, including successfully completing the state’s rigorous California Environmental Quality Act review process. On this page, find out what is fact and what is fiction when it comes to the Cadiz Water Project.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Q. What is the Cadiz Valley Water Conservation, Recovery and Storage Project?
A: The Cadiz Water Project is an innovative public-private partnership among Southern California water agencies and desert agriculture business Cadiz, Inc. that will create a new water supply that can serve up to 400,000 people a year by reducing an ongoing loss of groundwater to evaporation in California’s Mojave Desert. The Project proposes to sustainably manage groundwater underlying Cadiz’s private agricultural property in the Mojave Desert where fresh water presently migrates to saline dry lake playas and evaporates. The Project will conserve billions of gallons of water annually so that it can be used to offset long-term supply-demand balances in Southern California. The Project will also provide an opportunity to store up to a million acre-feet of imported water within the aquifer.
The project has successfully completed a robust review by state and local public agencies in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the most aggressive environmental protection law in the nation, and will be governed by a Court-approved groundwater management plan overseen locally by San Bernardino County. The Project offers tremendous benefits to the Southern California region including creating 5,900 new jobs. The Project is presently completing final arrangements to deliver water to customers within the existing Southern California water transportation system so it can offer supplemental water supplies to any local community in need.
Q. Where is the proposed Project located?
A: The Cadiz Water Project is located in the Mojave Desert at Cadiz, California, approximately 80 miles east of Barstow, California. The Project is located entirely on private property owned by Cadiz, Inc. and a conveyance pipeline is planned for the Arizona & California Railroad (ARZC) right-of-way to connect the Project wellfield to the Colorado River Aqueduct near Rice, California.
Q. Why is the water needed?
A: California has and will continue to suffer from years of drought conditions, and Southern California in particular faces a long-term water crisis due to infrastructure deficiencies and regulatory restrictions on its water supplies imported from northern California and the Colorado River. Some communities in Southern California have no access to locally sourced supplies and rely 100% on imports. Despite ongoing and planned water conservation projects, existing water supplies are insufficient to meet the long-term needs of the region. Thus, local water providers are working to identify new, reliable, high-quality water supplies to ensure they can continue to meet their customers’ needs and keep ratepayers’ costs low – particularly in low-income, densely populated, urban communities that cannot afford to invest in conservation technology or new supplies. By better managing the groundwater basin at Cadiz and sustainably conserving water that is currently being lost, the Cadiz Water Project will create a new water supply that can serve up to 400,000 people a year and new groundwater storage capacity that can help ensure water reliability during times of drought.
Q. Who is participating in the Project?
A: Multiple water providers that serve millions of Southern California water users have signed letters of intent, option agreements or purchase agreements with Cadiz Inc. to reserve water supplies from the Project. In addition, Cadiz has reserved 20 percent of Project supplies for use by any San Bernardino County-based water agency, and the County also has authority over the project under its approved groundwater management plan. The Arizona & California Railroad Company, which owns the right-of-way where the conveyance pipeline is proposed to be constructed, will also receive water and other benefits from the Project to serve critical railroad purposes.
Q. What are the benefits of the Project?
A: According to a study published by Inland Empire economist Dr. John Husing, the Project will create and support over 5,900 jobs and generate more than $878 million in economic activity in the Inland Empire over its two construction phases, and infuse millions of dollars in tax revenue to local governments over the long term, including approximately $5.4 million per year for San Bernardino County budgets and $613,000 per year for the Needles Unified School District.
Moreover, the Project will also improve local water supply reliability and reduce the demand for imported water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the Colorado River, both of which continue to be limited by regulatory restrictions even in wet years. Cadiz is closer to Southern California population centers than the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta or the Colorado River, so considerably less energy will be needed to move Project water. This will help manage Southern California’s energy demands, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and stabilize rates for water users. In addition, the Project will create new groundwater storage opportunities and improve water quality by lowering the salt content in the Colorado River Aqueduct. Southern California economics firm Stratecon estimates that the availability of the Project’s water supplies in the region could result in $6.1 billion in savings and avoided costs for ratepayers over a 50-year period.
ABOUT THE WATER RESOURCE
Q. Where does the water come from?
A: The Project is located at the confluence of the Fenner Valley and Orange Blossom Wash watersheds in California’s Mojave Desert. Every year, precipitation falls on the mountains at the higher elevations of the watersheds as rain and snow. Much of this water gradually percolates underground and is stored deep beneath the surface in the aquifer system. The highly porous underlying rock layers provide ideal conditions for storage of this pure water; research has found that more than 20 million acre-feet of water is currently stored in the alluvium beneath the Project area, as much as is stored in Lake Mead, the nation’s largest surface reservoir. Even more water is believed to be stored further underground in carbonate rock layers.
The groundwater naturally flows downhill through the aquifer system over hundreds of years and ultimately reaches the dry lakes at the base of the watershed, where it becomes highly saline and evaporates through the surface. To minimize the loss of this clean groundwater to salinity and evaporation, Project wells will intercept the groundwater and capture it before it reaches the highly-saline brine. Once implemented, the Project would conserve and recover billions of gallons of water every year for beneficial use throughout Southern California. Importantly, this aquifer is not fed by water that comes from nearby Springs, which have been shown to be hydraulically disconnected from the Project area.
Q. Is the water supply renewable?
A: Detailed scientific analysis of the Project’s watersheds over many years has confirmed that the groundwater in the system is naturally renewable and recharged by rain and snowpack that occurs in the upper elevations of the mountains in the watershed. Based on a model developed by the S. Geological Survey (USGS), the long-term average recharge rate is estimated to be 32,000 acre-feet per year.
Q. How much water can be delivered to participants?
A: Over the 50-year term of the Project, an average of approximately 50,000 acre-feet of groundwater per year will be delivered to Southern California communities. This is enough water to serve about 400,000 people per year and less water than Cadiz would use to farm its properties instead.
Q. What is the quality of the groundwater that would be withdrawn from the aquifer?
A: Cadiz water meets all state and federal drinking water standards without treatment. The Project has further committed to meet any and all supplemental standards established by partner water agencies. The quality of Cadiz’s water has been thoroughly reviewed and assessed as part of the CEQA review process and is continually monitored by San Bernardino County as part of our ongoing agricultural operations.
ABOUT PERMITTING & APPROVALS
Q. Has the Project been subject to California’s regulatory processes, including public commentary?
A: The Cadiz Water Project has gone through a thorough, transparent environmental review and approval in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the most stringent environmental review law in the nation. Numerous state, local and federal agencies participated in the CEQA review starting in 2011, and multiple public hearings were held as part of this process. The Project’s CEQA approval was further upheld by the California Superior Court and the Court of Appeal. No federal environmental review is needed because the Project would not be built on federal lands.
Q. Has the Project been subject to a federal Permitting process?
A: Because the Project will be constructed on private land or within existing rights-of-way, corridors, including one owned and operated by the Arizona & California Railroad (ARZC), no federal permitting has been required for the Project. The Project’s proposal to co-locate water infrastructure in an existing railroad right-of-way was evaluated by the Bureau of Land Management and found to be within the scope of the ARZC’s existing permit. Such co-location is consistent with 100 years of federal practice and does not avoid state environmental review of the project itself, but it does avoid environmental impacts to open federal lands. Federal government agencies were invited to participate in and comment on the state environmental review process, and those with jurisdiction did provide comment.
How can I learn more about the Project?
Useful information is posted online about the Project at the following websites:
Cadiz Inc. | www.cadizinc.com
Fenner Valley Water Authority | http://www.fvwa.org
In addition, questions can be emailed to cdegener@cadizinc.com