MWD Breaks Stalemate in Water Purchase Deal

In a milestone in the history of California water development, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California board voted on Tuesday to buy surplus water from the rural Imperial Irrigation District, breaking a decades-old stalemate between city dwellers and farmers over sharing scarce water.

With only the briefest debate, directors of the Southland’s largest water agency accepted in principle an offer of the Imperial Valley district to send Southern California at least 100,000 acre-feet of water a year that is not needed in the rich agricultural area east of San Diego.

Tentative approval had been voted last year, but negotiations between the urban-oriented MWD and the Imperial Valley agricultural interests were so tricky that neither side considered the deal locked up until Tuesday’s vote. One more MWD board vote is needed this month because directors did not want to give formal approval until they read an environmental impact report on the arrangement. But officials said that vote will be just a formality.

Imperial Irrigation District directors approved the proposal last November. They will decide in January whether to hold an advisory vote of district residents on the proposal. But Claude Finnell, former Imperial County agricultural commissioner who advised the MWD during the negotiations, said he expects little opposition in the valley.

“A major achievement for Metropolitan,” is how Myron B. Holburt, MWD’s chief negotiator, described the deal.

For years, agricultural interests, which control most of California’s water supply, have resisted sharing water with urban California. And urban water districts have not wanted to buy such water, preferring to build expensive water importation projects, such as those that bring water to the Southland from the Colorado River, Owens Valley and Northern California.

But soaring construction costs and environmental opposition has made it increasingly difficult to build any new water projects or expand existing ones. Faced with serving burgeoning populations, urban areas are looking for ways to tap the huge supplies now allocated for rural use.

The MWD-Imperial district deal represents a unique effort to do just that for the vast MWD service area, which extends from Ventura County to the Mexican border and from the Pacific Ocean into the Inland Empire of Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

The MWD will build water conservation facilities in the Imperial Valley that will cost at least $115 million. Canals will be lined with concrete, distribution systems will be automated, reservoirs constructed and other facilities will be built that will conserve vast amounts of water now being wasted. A state board had ordered the Imperial district to stop the waste.

A portion of the water the Imperial users now get from the Colorado River soaks into the ground as it is transported through unlined canals or is wasted by old-fashioned irrigation systems. A substantial amount of Colorado River water flows into the Salton Sea, at the southern end of the Imperial Valley.

Exchange Arrangement

In exchange for constructing the facilities, the MWD will get at least 100,000 acre-feet a year of Imperial’s share of Colorado River water. An acre-foot, a standard measurement of water, is equivalent to the amount of water needed to cover an acre 1 foot deep--about the amount needed to supply a family of five with a house and yard for a year.

That water is badly needed by the MWD, which has predicted that the population in the area it serves will rise by 5 million, to 14.5 million, by 2010. A 1964 U.S. Supreme Court decision had reduced California’s share of water from the Colorado River. The Colorado, and state Water Project supplies from Northern California, make up the MWD’s water supply.

With the new Central Arizona Project claiming Arizona’s share of Colorado River water, that Supreme Court decision is about to be implemented, and the MWD’s Colorado supply could be reduced from 1.2 million acre-feet a year to 550,000.

As a result, Metropolitan has been looking for new water supplies. When its proposal to expand the state Water Project was turned down by the voters in 1982, the MWD began studying a solution long urged by environmentalists and other water conservationists. They urged the district to buy water from agricultural interests which, under state and federal laws, control much of the state’s water supplies.

MWD, the product of an era of big water projects, did so reluctantly, and its officials were suspicious of the environmentalists who argued that conservation and purchase of surplus water was cheaper and better for the state than expanding the Water Project.

With Imperial under state orders to conserve water, it seemed like a likely target. But the agricultural Imperial Irrigation District leaders long resisted, charging that the Los Angeles area wanted to steal its water and leave it dry. Old enmities were invoked, with many in the Imperial Valley recalling how the city of Los Angeles forced Owens Valley ranchers to give up their water many years ago. The Imperial district, an original importer of Colorado River water, had a top priority for water from Boulder Dam on the Colorado and was reluctant to share it.

The Imperial district first asked $250 an acre-foot for its water, too high for Metropolitan. But in the end, the MWD offered $128 an acre-foot and complete financing of the expensive conservation projects.

Price of Water

Under the agreement, Metropolitan will take 100,000 acre-feet of water now going to Imperial from the Colorado River when the conservation facilities are built. When treatment costs and the power costs of pumping the water are included, the Imperial district water will cost $188 an acre-foot.

That is $128 an acre-foot more than the water Metropolitan draws from the Colorado under its own allocation. But it is considerably cheaper than water imported from Northern California. That water, after treatment, costs about $300 an acre-foot.

COLORADO RIVER