All Quiet on the Water Front

Negotiations between California’s largest urban water district and the biggest agricultural water distributor have gone underground, so to speak. Perhaps the quiet new talks between the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Imperial Irrigation District finally will produce the long-awaited agreement to conserve water so that it can be diverted to urban use.

Imperial officials have accused Met leaders in recent years of undermining water-trade negotiations by criticizing the 500,000-acre farming and ranching district too harshly in public. But a major part of the problem is that the five-member Imperial board of directors, elected at large among county voters and not just water-users, never has managed to stay very united. As unwieldy as Metropolitan may be with more than 50 directors representing agencies from the southern slopes of the Tehachapis to the Mexican border, it is the Imperial board that has been riven with political bickering and often-conflicting public comments.

Several times board committees have made progress in negotiations with Metropolitan, only to have their work rejected or ignored by other board members. The situation has been further complicated by turnover on the board. Two new members will take office later this year to re-establish farmer dominance over district affairs.

Part of Imperial’s new approach is to hire Robert M. Edmonston, a veteran California water official, to take over the district’s negotiations with Metropolitan. At Edmonston’s request, board members said that the progress of negotiations no longer would be discussed publicly. Met’s chief negotiator is another long-time state water expert, Myron B. Holburt.

Since 1984 Imperial has been under order from the state Water Resources Control Board to conserve up to 350,000 acre-feet of water a year--enough to serve an urban population of 1.5 million. Imperial annually uses about 3 million-acre-feet a year from the Colorado River on its rich croplands. Metropolitan, which faces a cutback of its Colorado River water allocation, has offered to finance the construction of conservation facilities for Imperial in exchange for the right to use the water saved.

The agencies generally have agreed on an initial transfer of 100,000 acre-feet of water a year, but have deadlocked over the cost. Offers and demands have ranged from $10 million to $17.5 million for the first 100,000 acre-feet. Metropolitan steadfastly has resisted Imperial’s demand that the basic charge be increased by an annual inflation factor. At times Imperial has threatened to end the bargaining and sell the water directly to San Diego. Metropolitan, which wholesales water to the San Diego area, contends that this would violate the complex system of laws and regulations governing Colorado River water.

The state water board has delayed imposing a water-conservation program on Imperial, hoping that the negotiations with Metropolitan would solve the problem. But the board is bound to clamp down on Imperial soon if progress is not made. Imperial now faces pressure of another sort--an increase in water rates for its farmer and rancher members so that it can pay claims arising from flooding around the Salton Sea attributed to Imperial’s excess irrigation runoff.

Imperial’s Edmonston and Metropolitan’s Holburt are old hands at California water dealings. Perhaps better than any other officials in the state, they understand what is at stake, and the benefits that each district can realize through a successful agreement. The two sides have never been that far apart, except in public rhetoric. In their quiet negotiations, perhaps Edmonston and Holburt can close the gap.