MWD Swings an Unusual Deal for Imperial Water

The Metropolitan Water District and the biggest irrigation district in the state have tentatively agreed on an unusual $92-million water conservation project that will free 100,000 acre-feet of water a year for use in urban Southern California.

That is enough water to supply the cities of Long Beach and Santa Ana, according to experts from MWD, which serves 14.5 million people in Southern California.

If approved by the MWD board, as expected, the historic pact could eventually open the way for conserving a total of 350,000 acre-feet of water a year that is now going to waste in the Imperial Valley. This is water that could be used to meet the growing demands of an expanding urban population, MWD officials said.

An acre-foot contains 325,800 gallons of water, enough to supply two families for a year, or water one-third of an acre of cotton.

Delivery Systems

The unusual deal hinges on MWD’s financing of the modernization of a 50-year-old delivery system in the 500,000-acre Imperial Irrigation District. The huge rural district, located just north of the Mexican border, gets water from the federal Boulder Canyon Project on the Colorado River.

By building new reservoirs, lining old earthen canals with concrete and installing automatic valves and gates, the irrigation district would save 100,000 acre-feet a year that is now lost through seepage, leaks and inefficient distribution, water engineers said.

In return for financing these conservation projects, the MWD would receive the water saved. Negotiations to save the first 100,000 acre-feet started four years ago, but talks broke down several times over how much MWD would have to spend to get the needed water.

The tentative agreement worked out by the staffs of the two districts and approved by Imperial’s Board of Directors on Tuesday, calls for the MWD to spend $92 million to upgrade the Imperial system. In addition, MWD will give the Imperial district $23 million to compensate for “indirect costs” and pay another $3 million a year in “operational costs.”

MWD Shaves Price

The total bill will run $128 an acre-foot for the water saved, according to Myron B. Holburt, MWD chief negotiator. Imperial officials had been asking $250 an acre-foot, with inflation escalators. The agreement gives MWD five years to complete the construction of 17 specific projects and grants the MWD rights to the water for 35 years, Holburt said.

The agreement comes at a time when Southern California faces cutbacks in its allotments of Colorado River and California Aqueduct water, Holburt said.

“We are facing a potential shortage of about a half-million acre-feet by the year 2000,” he said.