Another Owens Valley?

Out in the Imperial Valley, some are calling it the Chinatown Syndrome. Others cry, “Owens Valley!” (Translation: Look out, boys, or Los Angeles will steal your water). An Imperial farming pioneer warned: “You let them have one drop and they soon will have it all. Imperial Valley will become a desert waste again.”

Emotions have been stirred by a proposal that would permit the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to use 100,000 acre-feet of the valley’s Colorado River water for the next 35 years. That might be increased later to 250,000 acre-feet a year, enough to provide domestic needs for 250,000 families.

In exchange, MWD would give the Imperial Irrigation District $10 million a year for conservation works such as the lining of canals and the computerized regulation of water flow. Imperial would lose no water that now goes to irrigate crops.

Necessity on both sides has given birth to the proposal, to be considered by the Imperial district board this week. Metropolitan soon will lose, to Arizona, the right to use 662,000 acre-feet of its own Colorado River water. Imperial is being prodded by state officials to conserve water now wasted into the Salton Sea, but does not have the necessary capital. The exchange idea has been applauded throughout the West as an example of sensible, modern water management.

Still, there are concerns in the Imperial Valley, including the specter of Los Angeles’ clandestine purchase of Owens Valley land decades ago to get the water rights. But this is not 1910 and MWD officials are intent on convincing skeptical Imperial residents that they would not deceive them with a deal that was not in their best interest too.

MWD is a six-county agency with a 51-member board, only eight of whom represent the City of Los Angeles. A major beneficiary of the swap would be Imperial’s neighbor and trading ally, San Diego County. Imperial would have a cancellation clause. No water can change hands without approval of the secretary of Interior. MWD is willing to negotiate further some issues raised during hearings held in the Imperial Valley in the last month such as an escalation clause in the $10-million payment to account for inflation.

The Owens Valley days are over even in the Owens Valley. Speedy approval of the exchange will provide long-term benefits not only for Imperial and Metropolitan, but the cause of prudent water management throughout Southern California.