Imperial Valley Told to Cut Its Water Use

LAS VEGAS — In an otherwise upbeat speech Thursday about the future of water supplies in the West, U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt sternly warned Southern California’s water-rich Imperial Valley to reduce its use of the resource or face federal action.

“I believe the time has come for me as the [Colorado] River master to play a more active role,” Babbitt told a convention of the Colorado River Water Users Assn., officials from seven states that depend on the 1,400-mile waterway.

Babbitt praised California’s overall efforts to reduce its draw from the river but singled out for criticism the Imperial Irrigation District--the largest user of water from the Colorado--citing it for the amount it uses and how it does so.

Although the need to rein in the Imperial Valley is the more immediate issue, the secretary said, two other federal initiatives could prove crucial to Southern California.

Babbitt announced plans for the first-ever rules for interstate transfers of Colorado River water. In the first transfer, Nevada would pay Arizona to store some of its water for future use. But officials foresee a day when California will be active in buying water conserved and stored in other states.

The secretary also said the time has come for federal action on the Salton Sea, which suffers from high salinity, toxicity and dying fish and birds. Although he offered no specifics, he spent the afternoon touring the troubled area, which straddles Riverside and Imperial counties.

On the issue of the Imperial Valley, Babbitt said he would not approve a historic sale of its water to San Diego County unless the Imperial agency--along with smaller agricultural water districts in the neighboring Coachella and Palo Verde valleys--limits its demand on the Colorado.

If no limitation (called quantification) agreement can be reached, Babbitt said, he is prepared to impose restrictions on the three agricultural districts.

Although delivered in measured tones, the secretary’s comments constitute fighting words in the Imperial Valley, where the farmers are the children and grandchildren of pioneers who turned the area from a desert wasteland into a region of agricultural bounty. Over the years, they have zealously protected their water rights with guns, lawyers and political muscle.

“We are disappointed that the secretary does not seem to understand our situation as well as we would like,” said Michael Clinton, general manager of the Imperial district. “He said in his speech that he wanted to make sure no entitlement holder on the river is disadvantaged. As the oldest and largest entitlement holder, we feel it is the secretary’s duty to see that we are not disadvantaged.”

Officials from other agencies were pleased with Babbitt’s speech.

John Wodraska, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, said water disputes seem closer to resolution after years of stalemate.

He likened the history of water conflict in the West to the movie “Groundhog Day,” in which the lead character, played by Bill Murray, keeps reliving the same day while he tries to “get it right.”

“I think in water we’re finally getting it right,” Wodraska said.

For reasons of history, the three agricultural agencies are entitled to 3.85 million acre-feet of Colorado River water each year--out of an entire allocation to California of 4.4 million. But the three have taken more than 3.85 million for several years, because of the Imperial Valley’s increasing use.

“This is a disturbing trend, and it is at tension with California’s need to bring its use within its entitlement,” Babbitt said.

This year, for the first time, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, an agency under Babbitt’s control, rejected the Imperial district’s initial request for Colorado River water.

The bureau hopes to conduct a study to determine whether the Imperial district--as many rival water agencies contend--is sloppy in its use of water, flooding fields unnecessarily and allowing canals to leak.

Unlike in the Central Valley, where growers have explicit limits on water use depending on crop type and acreage, farmers using Colorado River water are free to plant any crop and, in effect, use as much water as they need.

If converted to suburban and urban use, 3.85 million acre-feet would satisfy the needs of more than 30 million people for a year. Many water experts--including Babbitt--say one solution to the increasing demand in coastal Southern California is for the heavily populated areas to strike deals to buy water from the agricultural regions.

Even so, Babbitt said, he will not approve deals like the proposed San Diego County-Imperial Valley transfer if it results in the agricultural water district merely increasing its draw on the Colorado rather than finding ways to conserve. By some accounts, that is what happened when the Imperial agency entered into a water sales agreement with the MWD in the 1980s.

California now gets the bulk of its water from the Colorado, and Babbitt has been pressuring the state to reduce its reliance on the river through conservation and intrastate water sales.

In the past, the farmers of the Imperial Valley have fought as far as to the U.S. Supreme Court to protect their water rights.

But Babbitt said he hopes the valley will accept limits on its draw from the Colorado as a trade-off for his approval of the lucrative agreement to sell between 130,000 and 300,000 acre-feet annually of its entitlement to the river’s water to San Diego County.

“We’ve had a good five years on the Colorado River,” the secretary told reporters after his speech. “We’ve had a lot of knock-down, drag-out fights. But we’ve stayed out of the courts.”

Babbitt declined to take a position, however, on one of the hottest water issues of the moment--negotiations between the San Diego County Water Authority and the MWD over bringing the Imperial Valley water to San Diego via the MWD’s Colorado Aqueduct.

San Diego County and the MWD are at loggerheads, in part, over how much the MWD would be paid for transporting the water. Also under dispute is whether San Diego County should be guaranteed use of the aqueduct at all times or denied it when the aqueduct is full with water needed by the other Southern California communities served by the MWD.