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The Cadiz Water Project, a development in San Bernardino County’s Mojave Desert that will bring new drinking water to over 400,000 Southern California residents, is again being targeted by legislators from outside of the region in the last days of the two year legislative session in Sacramento.
SB 120 (Senator Richard Roth, D-Riverside), originally a budget bill focused on In-Home Supportive Services, was changed on August 24th through a long-criticized procedure called “gut and amend” to specifically target the Cadiz Water Project by placing a further obstacle before the project requiring new permission from the California State Lands Commission, an obscure agency headed by another project opponent, Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom.
The Cadiz Water Project has been approved by the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, performed a complete Environmental Impact Report as required by the California Environmental Quality Act, and been upheld in twelve California State Court rulings.
The proposal has been in the works for several years and includes plans to construct its pipeline in an existing railroad right-of-way. In 2015, the Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) during the Obama Administration issued a first of its kind evaluation telling Cadiz and its host railroad that its proposal needed a separate federal permit. Sources at the time reported that decision was influenced by communications with third parties and it received bi-partisan push back. In 2017, BLM withdrew the 2015 evaluation citing case law that allows the use of railroad right of way for numerous purposes, including water pipelines, without additional federal review.
Senator Roth said in a statement that SB 120 is necessary because the federal government is abdicating its environmental responsibilities regarding the Cadiz project.
Last year, Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, sponsored a bill with the identical language to SB 120. That bill did not make it out of committee. Senator Roth agreed to author the SB 120 “gut and amend” previously a Senator Ben Hueso bill in what project bill opponents consider a backdoor effort.
SB-120, would authorize the State Lands Commission and the Department of Fish and Wildlife to review the Project with little additional direction. The Project has completed CEQA review, a separate County review and was upheld by trial and appellate courts on multiple grounds. California’s water transportation laws already require conveyance parties to confirm movement of water does not harm species or wildlife.
SB-120 was filed one week before the current legislative session is scheduled to end, which has some supporters of the proposal crying foul.
“At a time when California clearly needs more water supply options, not less, all Californians should be dismayed that some in Sacramento are using the worst kind of legislative games to thwart a locally approved, Court validated, sustainable water project that is widely supported,” said Courtney Degener, a spokesperson for Cadiz, in a statement.
“SB-120 is destructive policy and an unconstitutional effort to single out one company and one project for unique and unprecedented review. We join the over 70 organizations who have quickly urged the Assembly to reject the bill.”
Nearly 74 percent of San Bernardino County residents support the Cadiz project, or some version of it, according to a survey conducted last spring by the Baldy View Chapter of the Building Industry Association of Southern California. The same survey showed that a similar 74 percent of residents opposed the State of California interfering with local water use decisions.
SB 120 is opposed by dozens of groups including trade councils, chambers of commerce, local government agencies and several water districts, which stated in a joint letter: “While the bill targets one specific project, it sets a dangerous precedent and poses a potential threat to any infrastructure project in the state.”
