Deadline for Regional Water Pact Extended

After three days of negotiations failed to get California water agencies to settle their differences, state and federal officials this week extended the deadline until Aug. 3 for the Metropolitan Water District and two desert water districts to reach an agreement on issues of water and money.

Under the complex web of relationships that determine water allocation in California, unless the MWD, the Imperial Irrigation District and the Coachella Valley Water District reach an accord, a proposed water sale between Imperial Valley and San Diego cannot be consummated. U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has called that deal key to the region’s water future.

Last week, Babbitt, in a speech in Colorado, expressed optimism that the MWD and the two desert agencies would meet his mid-June deadline to reach an agreement that would make the MWD’s aqueduct available to bring some of Imperial’s share of the Colorado River to San Diego.

Even as the deadline was being pushed back six weeks, California Water Director Tom Hannigan and Acting Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes indicated they remain confident that the California agencies will reach a “conceptual, durable agreement” Aug. 3.