BURSTCalifornia’s biggest irrigation district is throwing its support behind a controversial water diversion project that aims to help relieve the Golden State’s historic battle with drought but also faces widespread local opposition.
The Imperial Irrigation District — the biggest district not only in California, but also the nation — declared on Tuesday that it was issuing “a significant and unusual endorsement” for the state’s proposed Delta Conveyance Project.
The controversial, $20 billion project would involve tunneling more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region to southern portions of the state.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has long been promoting the plans as part of efforts to bolster the State Water Project, a storage network that serves about 27 million residents and 750,000 acres of farmland.
Although the Imperial County is the only county in Southern California that does not receive State Water Project water, as it draws exclusively from the Colorado River, the district adopted a resolution this week stressing the importance of the proposed plans.
“When the Delta is stable, the Colorado River is stronger,” Alex Cardenas, director of the Imperial Irrigation District, said in a statement. “One system supports the other — and California needs both to succeed.”
The Bay-Delta and the Colorado River, California’s two major water systems, are intrinsically connected, as the reliability of one can help provide relief to the other, according to district officials.
In Southern California, Bay-Delta system reliability directly impacts the adjacent Metropolitan Water District and the Coachella Valley Water District — both of which turn to the drought-ridden Colorado River when State Water Project deliveries fail, the officials noted.
Just a few weeks ago, California’s Department of Water Resources issued a report examining how the completion of the Delta Conveyance Project, among other strategies, could help offset and recover climate-driven water losses.
But many Bay-Delta area water agencies have expressed concerns about the project, citing potential environmental impacts, including threats to the aquifer and harm to local wildlife.
Leaders of the state’s Legislative Delta Caucus and other organizations this spring voiced collective opposition to the plans, describing the tunnel as an “unaffordable project to be paid by ratepayers who are already struggling with the high cost of living in California.”
“This project will destroy prime farmland, wreak havoc on the Delta region for a generation, and fail to solve the state’s water issues,” the groups stated.
But Imperial Irrigation District officials on Tuesday emphasized a need to ease the strain on a waterway plagued by drought, with the understanding “that California’s water systems cannot be managed in isolation.”
The endorsement, they explained, positions the district “as an ally of the state and other agencies backing the project.”