02 Mar Company Update: Bipartisan Letter to New Interior Secretary Seeks Agency Withdrawal of Cadiz Water Project Right-of-Way Evaluation
Today, the Company reported that a bipartisan group of Members of the U.S. House of Representatives have sent a letter to the newly confirmed Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, to request that the agency rescind an existing evaluation and instruction memorandum regarding the Cadiz Water Project’s proposed use of a portion of an existing railroad right-of-way and find that the proposed use is within the scope of the right-of-way.
To view a copy of the letter, click here.
In October 2015, the outgoing Director of the California office of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), an Interior agency, issued a summary evaluation letter reversing an earlier 2009 agency opinion that the Project was within the scope of the railroad right-of-way. The Company believes that the October evaluation was contrary to law and policy related to co-location of utilities within railroad right-of-way and should be rescinded and replaced.
The controversial 2015 evaluation has been under investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Legislative language approved by the House last year and pending before Congress also seeks to clarify the scope of railroad right-of-way over public lands.