"Water by railroad? An innovative approach to our water crisis"

By Richard Stoddard

Southern California is currently in the grip of a long-term drought. As its temperate climate and vibrant culture draws newcomers from around the globe, the pressure to find additional sources of clean water is becoming critical and—in some areas—desperate.
Last month, state officials announced a “drought water bank” to help cities and farms cope with an anticipated third dry year in 2009. Furthermore, state water agencies received only 35% of their normal water allocations for 2008—down from 60% in 2007—and they expect to only receive between 10% and 20% in 2009. This past August, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) announced that it may implement mandatory rationing in 2009 since it does not have enough supply to meet demand.
In an effort to deliver a much-needed, reliable water supply to Southern California, Cadiz Real Estate LLC, a land and water resource development firm, has signed a 99-year lease to use the Arizona & California Railroad Company's (ARZC) railroad right-of-way for a water delivery pipeline.
This pipeline will connect Cadiz’s 35,000 acre property in eastern San Bernardino County with the Colorado River Aqueduct as part of the Cadiz Valley Dry-Year Supply Project This project could deliver 150,000 acre-feet of new water during years of droughts, emergencies, or other periods of urgent need. To put that into context, that’s around 49 billion gallons of water in a dry year—enough water to serve more than 1.2 million Southern California residents.
The aquifer system that underlies the project area has the ability to provide both a new supply of indigenous groundwater and store approximately 1 million acre-feet of Colorado River water that could be imported from the Colorado River Aqueduct (CRA) in “wet” years.
This stored water and indigenous groundwater could be delivered to the CRA in “dry” year for distribution to participating water providers throughout Southern California. The aquifer system is naturally replenished over time by rainfall and snow melt that occurs within a regional watershed of 1,300 square miles.
The project was actually first proposed in 1997 in partnership with MWD. The original path of the water conveyance pipeline would have crossed federal lands and a right-of-way was offered by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) for this pipeline alignment in 2002.
Indeed the DOI stated that, “by providing storage of surplus Colorado River water, and the export of indigenous groundwater under specified conditions, the Cadiz Project will help ensure needed dry-year water supply reliability and will assist California in efficiently managing its water supplies. Future water supply needs in Metropolitan’s Southern California service area, without implementation of the Cadiz Project, would substantially exceed demands by the year 2020. The public benefits of the Cadiz Project are compelling reasons for the Department of the Interior to cooperate to the greatest extent possible in assisting California in meeting its water supply goals.”
Unfortunately, in 2002, MWD refused to accept the right-of-way offered by the DOI and did not proceed with the project. But Southern California’s need for new water supplies (and storage) has only increased since 2002—in fact, the need has never been greater.
That is why the agreement with ARZC is so exciting. By utilizing the railroad right-of-way, we can finally offer our solution to water suppliers throughout Southern California and do it in a better way than we had contemplated with the original route across federal lands. Projects such as these are always complex and often bring debate, and the project has seen its share of controversy. But at the end of the day, the only thing of importance is the facts.
For 10 years, the project has undergone extensive environmental and technical studies to confirm that it is a source of water supply that Southern California can count on. This decade of analysis has confirmed that the aquifer system has the capacity to deliver needed supplies to Southern California (and store “wet” year supplies), that the groundwater quality is well suited for delivery to Southern California and that the environment in and around the project area can be protected.
We also expect that San Bernardino County will oversee a stringent Groundwater Management Plan to monitor and guarantee the protection of the environment in and surrounding the project area and to ensure the reliability of the water supply. These objectives are of the utmost importance to us. Construction of the project facilities could begin as soon as the environmental review for the project is completed. As a company who has operated in the region for over 20 years, we committed to protecting the desert environment.
Our project is exactly the kind of water storage California needs to help protect itself against dry years. Along with increased recycled water and desalination, our project presents an important alternative that can add to the region’s water supply reliability.
We are currently engaged in discussions with a group of public water providers interested in participating in the project, and we look forward to working with the region’s community to deliver much needed water to the region and provide a long-term solution that Southern California can count on.
“I look forward to the county playing the lead role on the Grandwater Monitoring and Management Plan and in helping to implement this important project,” said San Bernardino County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt. Supervisor Mitzelfelt’s district is the largest in San Bernardino County and includes the Cadiz Project area.