Firm Chosen to Engineer Imperial Valley Water-Saving Project

A major worldwide engineering firm was selected Tuesday by Imperial Valley water officials to carry out conservation planning and construction that ultimately could result in substantial amounts of additional water for coastal Southern California residents.

Directors of the Imperial Irrigation District voted unanimously to negotiate a contract with Parsons Corp. of Pasadena for consulting work on $450 million in improvements to eliminate irrigation spillage and seepage in the valley’s vast agricultural fields. The selection represents the first time that a private corporation has been selected to develop a water-saving plan for a public agency, Parsons officials said.

The announcement also adds impetus to negotiations between the irrigation district and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which purveys about half the water for 13 million Southern Californians and needs the additional supplies to avoid shortages within the next decade.

The MWD has counted on the conserved water from Imperial Valley in its water plans for the next 20 years. Preliminary estimates from state-sponsored studies have shown that at least 250,000 acre-feet a year--about a sixth of MWD’s present supply--could be saved for coastal urban use. (An acre-foot--325,851 gallons--is about the amount of water used annually by an average family of five.)

Those negotiations continue today, with Imperial officials expected to ask MWD about advancing funds to cover the cost of the initial studies by Parsons. In return, MWD could receive a commitment from Imperial for an as-yet-undetermined amount of conserved water resulting from the project.

“We’re really not too far from reaching an agreement with MWD,” said Lloyd Allen, one of two Imperial board members involved in both the Parsons and MWD negotiations.

The first phase of Parsons’ work will be to come up with precise cost and conservation figures, along with identifying all potential users--in addition to MWD--of any water saved.