Environmental groups sue Trump administration over California desert groundwater project

Environmental groups are suing the Trump administration over its decision supporting a company's plan to pump up to 16.3 billion gallons of groundwater each year from a Mojave Desert aquifer and build a pipeline to sell that water to Southern California cities.

Conservationists say the plan proposed by Los Angeles-based Cadiz Inc. would threaten natural springs and wildlife in Mojave Trails National Monument, which surrounds Cadiz's land, 75 miles northeast of Palm Springs. Company officials disagree.

To get the water to coastal cities, Cadiz wants to build a 43-mile pipeline alongside railroad tracks to the Colorado River Aqueduct, which would carry the water the rest of the way.

The Obama administration had ruled Cadiz needed a new permit to build that pipeline, a process that would prompt an environmental review and a public-comment period. But the Trump administration reversed that decision in October, saying Cadiz could build its pipeline under an existing railroad right-of-way without additional environmental scrutiny.

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The Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety are challenging that decision. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in Los Angeles, the groups argue that the Bureau of Land Management, under Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, made an "illegal determination" that Cadiz's pipeline does not need a new federal permit.

Cadiz Inc. "is just another corporation looking to profit by selling off an irreplaceable public resource," said Greg Loarie, an attorney at Earthjustice, which is representing the Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety in their lawsuit.

"The Trump administration would love to give Cadiz a free pass around our environmental laws, but we're not going to let that happen," Loarie said in a statement.

An Interior Department spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit, referring all questions to the Justice Department. A Justice spokesperson also declined to comment.

But in an October 13 letter to Cadiz Inc., Michael Nedd, then-acting director of the Bureau of Land Management, said the agency “concludes that authorizing the proposed activity falls within the scope of rights granted to the Arizona and California Railroad” under an 1875 law, and therefore doesn’t require an additional federal permit.

READ MORE: Trump administration green-lights Cadiz's groundwater pumping plan

That decision followed President Donald Trump's appointment of David Bernhardt as deputy Interior secretary. Until recently, Bernhardt was a partner in the Washington-based law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP, which owns shares of Cadiz Inc. Scott Slater, the president and CEO of Cadiz, is also a partner in that law firm.

Even before the lawsuit filed Tuesday, the Trump administration's sign-off was far from a guarantee Cadiz would be able to move forward with its groundwater pumping plan.

California's State Lands Commission told the company in September that one mile of its proposed 43-mile pipeline would pass through state-owned lands, meaning it would require a state lease and possibly a new environmental review. The lands commission is chaired by Lieutenant Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is running for governor in next year's election and has criticized Cadiz. Newsom supported a bill in the state Legislature that would have required an environmental review of Cadiz's plan, as did Gov. Jerry Brown.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein has been one of the project's fiercest critics. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power also opposes the groundwater pumping plan, saying the potential benefits are outweighed by the risk of harm to the desert environmental.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which operates the Colorado River Aqueduct, has also raised concerns, saying the groundwater Cadiz wants to transport through its aqueduct could contaminate drinking water supplies for Los Angeles and other cities. In a letter to Cadiz, Jeffrey Kightlinger, Metropolitan's general manager, said the groundwater contains chemicals such as arsenic, fluoride, chromium, nitrate and bromide, some of them at levels exceeding drinking water standards.

Cadiz has powerful supporters too, including gubernatorial candidate and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who worked as a consultant for the company. Earlier this year, 18 members of Congress urged Zinke to approve the water pipeline, including five Californians: Tony Cárdenas (D-Los Angeles), Paul Cook (R-Apple Valley), Jim Costa (D-Fresno), Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine) and Tom McClintock (R-Elk Grove).

Supporters say the Cadiz project would provide needed water for Southern California cities and generate jobs. The company has also argued its project wouldn't harm desert ecosystems, saying the groundwater it wants to pump is now flowing downhill and evaporating from two dry lakes — not feeding desert springs that nourish wildlife.

Asked to comment on the lawsuit, Courtney Degener, a spokesperson for Cadiz, pointed out that Orange County's Santa Margarita Water District — which has signed a contract to buy a portion of the 50,000 acre-feet of water Cadiz hopes to pump every year for 50 years — already studied the project's environmental impacts. The Center for Biological Diversity and other groups challenged the validity of that environmental review, as well as San Bernardino County's groundwater management plan, only to lose in state court.

"San Bernardino County, Cadiz and Santa Margarita Water District jointly defended all of those cases and prevailed in every instance," Degener said in an email.

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Conservationists have said the company's studies underestimate the impact the project would have on the desert groundwater basin, pointing to a 17-year-old evaluation from the U.S. Geological Survey that found rainwater replenishes the aquifer far more slowly than Cadiz has calculated. In 2012, the National Park Service said Cadiz's estimates of natural recharge rates "are not reasonable and should not even be considered."

Ileene Anderson, a scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity, said Cadiz's project would "suck the desert dry while developers count their money," damaging habitat used by desert tortoises, bighorn sheep, Mojave fringe-toed lizards and other at-risk species.

"Pumping ancient groundwater from the Mojave Desert to water suburban lawns in Orange County will devastate desert wildlife and the entire ecosystem relying on that water for survival," Anderson said in a statement.

Degener also defended the Trump administration's decision to allow Cadiz to build a water pipeline under an existing railroad permit, saying it makes more sense to locate the pipeline along railroad tracks than building it through undisturbed federal lands.

"It is better for the environment to share existing routes rather than create new ones that may cause new harm," Degener said in an email.

The company owns 34,000 acres along Route 66 in the Cadiz Valley and surrounding areas. While pursuing its plan to sell water, Cadiz has been running its wells to irrigate nearly 2,000 acres of farmland, growing lemons, grapes, raisins and other crops.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national nonprofit based in Tucson, Arizona. The other party in the anti-Cadiz lawsuit, the Center for Food Safety, is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that says it "works to protect our freshwater resources and ensure that access to and use of freshwater is fair and sustainable," among other goals.

Sammy Roth writes about energy and the environment for The Desert Sun. He can be reached at sammy.roth@desertsun.com, (760) 778-4622 and @Sammy_Roth.