Feud Over River Water Simmering
EL CENTRO, Calif. — The state's water barons stood at the mighty Hoover Dam and triumphantly signed a deal meant to end decades of feuding by divvying up California's share of the Colorado River between the water-rich Imperial Valley and the thirsty cities of San Diego County.
"With this agreement, conflict on the river is stilled," Interior Secretary Gale Norton said at the Oct. 16, 2003, ceremony, which capped nine years of politicking, litigating and negotiating.
Now it's two years later and, indeed, a portion of the Imperial Valley's mammoth share of the river is flowing to San Diego through the aqueduct owned by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
More will flow in coming years, up to a maximum of 200,000 acre-feet annually, enough for 1.6 million people.
The San Diego County Water Authority is paying the Imperial Irrigation District for the water and paying MWD to deliver it.
"We're moving the water and we're sending checks," said Gordon Hess, director of imported water for the San Diego agency.
But like all things involving California water, it's not that simple.
A group of farmers and the Imperial County Board of Supervisors is attacking the water deal in Sacramento County Superior Court. The legal action challenges the authority of the Imperial Irrigation District's board to make water deals without approval of the farmers.
If the farmers and county supervisors win, the deal could be squelched and negotiations would have to begin all over again on getting more river water to San Diego.
The water deal was made after years of pressure from the Clinton and Bush administrations for California to begin to live within a "water budget" instead of relying on taking more water from the Colorado than the state is assured under laws governing the river.
If push had come to shove, a federal cutback in water could have hurt not just the Imperial Valley and San Diego but water users throughout Southern California accustomed to receiving "surplus" allocations from the Colorado River.
In addition to the Sacramento legal action, environmental groups are suing in federal court in Las Vegas to block a project to line the All-American Canal, which brings river water to the Imperial Valley. Under the deal, lining the canal is meant to make water available for San Diego by reducing seepage.
