MWD Plan to Obtain Unused Water Advances

A far-reaching proposal for the farmers of the Imperial Irrigation District to share surplus water with huge areas of urban and suburban Southern California in the Metropolitan Water District was approved Monday by an MWD committee.

The action set the stage for votes today by the boards of the MWD and the Imperial district. Imperial provides water to prosperous Imperial Valley farms in the reclaimed desert east of San Diego.

Approval by both boards would signal a new and friendly stage in relations between the giant MWD and the Imperial district, which have been feuding for years over division of Colorado River water. The Colorado supplies both districts.

Two other water districts, the Coachella Valley Water District of Imperial County and the Palo Verde Irrigation District of Riverside County, would also have to approve the agreement, as would the U.S. secretary of the interior.

Officials of the Coachella Valley and Palo Verde districts could not be reached for comment Monday on whether they would go along with the proposal.

The Imperial Irrigation District receives 2,248,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water a year. An acre-foot equals 360,000 gallons of water. However, 34% of the water runs unused through canals and irrigation ditches to the Salton Sea, 227 feet below sea level.

The Metropolitan Water District has been entitled to 1.2 million acre-feet a year from the Colorado, but the amount will be reduced to less than 550,000 acre-feet annually at the end of this year, when the Central Arizona Project begins taking its share of Colorado River water.

The effect of that huge loss will not be felt immediately. Full reservoirs from years of heavy rain, combined with small Central Arizona Project needs, assure the MWD of plenty of Colorado River water in the short term. In the long run, however, the MWD has to increase its supply. That is why the big district looked to Imperial and tried to persuade the smaller district to share the water that now flows into the Salton Sea.

Under the agreement, beginning next year, the MWD would give the Imperial district $10 million annually for water-saving projects, such as lining canals with concrete and building storage facilities. The money would also be used for research on water conservation.

After two years, the MWD would have access to 100,000 acre-feet a year that the Imperial district would save through conservation.

The water, plus additional supplies from the California Water Project, improved underground water storage and urban conservation programs, will help make up a portion of the Colorado loss, according to Carl Baronkay, MWD general manager.

In the past, the Imperial farmers had resisted sharing water with the MWD, which had not been particularly interested in reaching an agreement with Imperial.

However, the defeat of a proposed expansion of the California Water Project forced the MWD to look for other sources of water, and the Imperial district was prodded from its position after a state investigation into charges of water wasting.