Water Deal Talks to Resume

After two days of rancor, officials from water agencies involved in a proposed deal to help coastal Southern California avert a threatened reduction in Colorado River water agreed on Wednesday to renew talks aimed at a settlement.

Representatives of the water agencies plan to meet Sunday in Las Vegas to see if objections to the deal raised by the Imperial Irrigation District can be overcome.

The deal, which the Imperial district’s board rejected Monday, called for farmers served by Imperial to fallow some farmland. Imperial would then sell the freed-up water to San Diego.

Board members said that fallowing land would hurt their region economically and that the deal did not protect the district sufficiently against possible future costs for environmental damage to the Salton Sea, which survives on water that runs off farms.

The meeting was scheduled after a day of telephone calls among state and federal officials and board members and staff members of the four agencies: the Imperial district, the San Diego County Water Authority, the Coachella Valley Water District and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Federal officials have said they will move to sharply cut California’s take of water from the Colorado if the state cannot meet a Dec. 31 deadline for reaching an agreement on how to bring about a gradual reduction in its use of the river.

“It’s a good sign that we’re still continuing to discuss things,” said Dennis Cushman, assistant general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority. “This 7 -1/2 year process has had fits and starts. We had a fit, and now we’ll have a start.”

The Sunday meeting is set for a conference room at Caesars Palace in the hours before the annual convention of the Colorado River Water Users Assn. It is anticipated that the convention will attract nearly a thousand water officials from seven states as well as U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Gale Norton.

She is scheduled to speak to the association and is expected to severely criticize Imperial and the other agencies for failing to reach agreement.

Among the officials trying to cajole the four agencies into resuming negotiations is state Sen. Michael Machado (D-Linden), soon to be named chairman of the Senate’s Agriculture and Water Committee. Machado said he is working in conjunction with Gov. Gray Davis and Resources Secretary Mary Nichols to get the four agencies talking, rather than exchanging angry quotes in the media.

“We’ve all vented a little bit; now it’s time to move on,” Machado said.

He said San Diego, Coachella and Metropolitan should take seriously the Imperial district’s concerns about the Salton Sea and fallowing.

“I understand their problems from a farmer-to-farmer perspective as someone who also has to depend on water for his livelihood,” Machado said.

Though calling on the other three agencies to take Imperial seriously, Machado warned Imperial not to attempt to reopen negotiations on the issue of the price San Diego will pay for the water. Some Imperial board members have complained that the price is too low.

Ronald Gastelum, chief executive officer of Metropolitan, said he spoke to Imperial officials Wednesday but did not receive a clear recitation of their reasons for voting no.

There may not be the “political will” for the Imperial board to ratify a water sale in the face of angry and passionate opposition from some farmers and business leaders, he said.