SSA will fight for water rights By DARREN SIMON,Staff Writer
Sunday, October 30, 2005 7:39 AM PST
The Salton Sea Authority, which manages the state’s largest inland lake, wants to send a message to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and state water officials.
That message is the SSA will fight any attempt by MWD to seek the rights to water flowing into the sea from the New and Alamo rivers, two arteries that sustain the sea.
During a recent SSA meeting, the board voted unanimously to send a letter with that message to the state Water Resources Control Board, which is considering a request from MWD to divert hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of water annually from the New and Alamo rivers away from the sea.
According to state documents, MWD has requested to divert up to 433,400 acre-feet of water per year from the New River, and 475,000 acre-feet per year from the Alamo River, both of which flows into the sea from Imperial County.
SSA officials said to divert water in those amounts would render useless any discussions on how to restore the sea, because there would be no more sea.
The sea is considered a dying body of water, sickened by its high salt content. SSA officials say they have a plan to save the sea that calls for building a dike that would divide the sea in half and collect the salt in a pond in the southern half. The SSA plan, however, needs a steady flow of water from the New and Alamo rivers.
“These are project killers,” said Larry Grogan, an Imperial County supervisor and SSA board member.
In asking that his fellow board members approve sending a letter to the state, Grogan said: “We have a chance to remove this cloud from the two rivers.”
MWD’s request for the rights to New River water was initially made in 2003. MWD sought rights to Alamo River water in 2004.
On July 29, the state Water Resources Control Board asked for additional information, specifically about how MWD’s request might affect the Salton Sea. The state water board gave MWD 90 days to respond.
During the SSA board meeting Thursday in El Centro, SSA members said that deadline would hit by 5 that afternoon. SSA officials said they understood MWD was going to seek an extension. SSA’s letter sent to the state water board Thursday asks that any request for an extension be denied.
The letter states: “Because we believe that it is crucial to move forward with discussions on projects to restore the sea, without the impediment of conflicting actions, we urge you not to grant an extension to MWD.”
MWD General Counsel Jeff Kightlinger said MWD is not seeking an extension from the state water board. He said earlier in the week MWD sent what information it had to the state board and informed it MWD cannot respond at this time to how any request to divert water would affect the sea.
Kightlinger said Saturday MWD cannot respond to such an issue until the state concludes its study of the Salton Sea’s future, a process that is to continue through December 2006 when the state Department of Water Resources is to select a “preferred alternative” for restoring the sea.
Kightlinger added any stance by the SSA board against MWD’s request to divert water from the New and Alamo rivers is premature.
He said MWD is looking at ways to desalt the water from the rivers to expand the supply to the Colorado River aqueduct and to ensure MWD has a viable water supply for its customers. He said it is the mission of MWD to provide water to Southern California. He added he understands the SSA’s mission is to protect the Salton Sea.
“They are too very different missions,” he said, adding perhaps it is possible to link the two.
While the SSA may have brought the issue of the New and Alamo rivers to the forefront, it is only one of a maze of issues that have arisen from an ongoing drought and the Quantification Settlement Agreement, a 75-year water pact between seven Southwestern states that share the river.
The QSA cut California’s water supply and has fueled an effort between the state’s water agencies to maintain what they think is their fair share of the Colorado.
Part of the QSA calls for the protection of the Salton Sea even as California’s water supply has been reduced.
Kightlinger said as MWD looks at taking water from the New and Alamo rivers and desalting it, it might be possible to take some of the water and feed it back to the sea.
For the SSA, there is no way MWD’s request for more water can fit in with the plan to restore the sea. The SSA’s concern with the MWD fits in with a new policy approved by the SSA board in which the SSA takes a stand against any further water transfers from the Imperial Valley.
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