Californians who want a stark example of the slow-growth mentality that has held back our state’s progress and has led to water scarcity should focus on a largely unknown battle that has taken place for years in the heart of the rural Mojave Desert.
That debate has started again as the Trump administration has given a water company the greenlight to use existing oil-and-gas pipelines to send water across federal land to serve communities in San Bernardino County. Ultimately, the company could sell enough water to supply 400,000 people a year throughout Southern California. The latest OK is a major step forward, although environmentalists have filed their usual lawsuits.
California faces more cuts to its Colorado River allotments as other river-adjacent states grab bigger shares, so state officials should view this project as a godsend. Instead, they have fought the company, as they echo alarmist claims of environmentalists who apparently don’t want Californians to have abundant water.
Activists have been overwrought even though the aquifer — the size of Rhode Island — largely replenishes itself. A lot of the water would be otherwise lost to evaporation. Cadiz has produced voluminous reports required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and has addressed serious concerns.
California’s way of life is dependent on the dams, aqueducts and water-treatment plants that serve its 39-million population. Private endeavors can bolster that infrastructure system and protect taxpayers in the process.
Instead of welcoming the drought-battling help, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law in 2019 to stop the project. Senate Bill 307 gave state lands agencies the power to reject any water-transfer project they believed would diminish the environment or California’s “cultural resources.”
The Obama and Biden administrations slowed the plan, as the project requires federal approvals. But the recent federal Bureau of Land Management decision says the project “will not significantly affect the environment,” per the Los Angeles Times.
California officials and environmentalists struggle to admit when the Trump administration gets one right, but this decision will help California when inevitably it faces another drought. Let the water flow.