IID joins landmark agreement By BRIANNA LUSK, Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 11, 2007 10:33 PM PST
The lifeblood of the Imperial Valley depends on the water supplied from the Colorado River.
As the nearly decade-long drought continues along with a historic low water flow, a landmark agreement has been reached on what to do if the situation worsens.
The Imperial Irrigation District has joined water rights holders including the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and entities from six other states in what is being called the most important water pact since 1922.
This week the secretary of the Interior is expected to sign the Record of Decision on the Water 2025 Initiative in Las Vegas.
The initiative puts into place measures to prevent states from warring over water in the event of a crisis.
The agreement is being touted as the most important move in water history since the signing of the Colorado River Compact.
“It gives us the opportunity to store the water and take it when we need it,” said IID board President Stella Mendoza.
If the IID had voted against it, it would have served effectively as a veto against the decision being heralded as a solution to the growing water shortage problem.
The Water 2025 Initiative allows the district to bank water, up to 50,000 acre-feet per year, behind Hoover Dam in Lake Mead.
The ability to store water that has been conserved by the district has been more than 20 years coming, officials said.
The Bureau of Reclamation estimates that by 2025, the region along the Colorado River and those areas served by it will likely face a conflict on water use.
Metropolitan Water District, covering portions of Orange, San Diego and Los Angeles County along with Coachella Valley are estimated to face likely water shortages by 2025.
Through various methods of intentional conservation, water saved by IID will be kept at Lake Mead, which has been at half capacity since the drought started nearly 10 years ago.
The lake, acting as a reservoir, will allow IID to draw on any surpluses created in the event of a shortage locally.
The agreement also establishes criteria on how the Interior Department could declare a shortage on the river and how the water would be delivered to entities that rely on the Colorado.
Director Mike Abatti said he took issue with the agreement because the Metropolitan Water District has joined the Southern Nevada Water Authority on a reservoir to be built near Drop 2 on the All-American Canal.
“It smells like a transfer to me,” Abatti said. “I think we’re giving up too much.”
MWD has the right to store more water than IID, according to the Water 2025 Initiative. After two years of negotiating, the MWD has allowed others to join in storing water at Lake Mead.
The reservoir along the All-American Canal is being financed by MWD, with a majority of the water storage capability going to the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
Director James Hanks said he was concerned that participation in the program should not interfere with IID’s priority in water coming from the river.
Despite ongoing water controversies and the unanswered question of how the Water 2025 Initiative will affect Mexico, officials said it is imperative to plan for the future.
“We don’t have a cause for concern because our water is our water and MWD has their own. That is our own supply for us to use when we need it,” Mendoza said.
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