MWD Close to Deal for Water

Southern California water officials said Tuesday that they are close to a deal to transfer water from inland farms to coastal cities in compliance with a federal order to reduce the region’s use of the Colorado River.

Negotiators working steadily since Saturday said they are on the verge of an agreement that would transfer water from the Imperial and Palo Verde valleys to San Diego County -- thus lessoning reliance on the Colorado -- all without harming the Salton Sea, a crucial oasis for millions of migratory birds.

The deal would require fallowing fields in the two valleys to bolster water supplies for San Diego.

It also would satisfy a federal demand that California find ways to stop using more than its legal share of the Colorado River. The state risks losing surplus Colorado River supplies -- enough to supply 3 million people for a year -- if it does not show substantial progress by the end of this year on an Imperial Valley water transfer.

With that Dec. 31 deadline looming, Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) set an Oct. 16 target for making a deal. If he succeeds, he is expected to announce details of the agreement today at a legislative hearing at Imperial Irrigation District headquarters in La Quinta. Though Metropolitan Water District officials expressed confidence that an agreement was imminent, they were not assured of success by late Tuesday afternoon.

“We are savvy veterans of these negotiations and are mindful that nothing is done until it’s done,” said Dennis Cushman, assistant general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority.

If the proposed agreement collapses and the U.S. Department of Interior cuts off the Colorado River surplus, the MWD insists that it has enough water stored to meet all of its obligations for a year.

But shortages and rationing could result if there were several consecutive years of drought, said MWD officials. The agency supplies water to 17 million people from Ventura to San Diego.

“If the deal doesn’t come together,” said Adan Ortega Jr., MWD vice president for external affairs, “it doesn’t mean we run out of water tomorrow. But it does call into question our long-term reliability because there would be no guarantee of surplus water from the Colorado River. It’s the difference between being in a phased program to reduce our reliance on the Colorado River versus being cut off cold turkey.”

MWD has a firm right to 550,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water but in some years has taken as much as 1.2 million acre-feet, to the dismay of the six other states that use the river.

Talks hung up Tuesday over the price to be paid Imperial Valley farmers and the amount of water demanded by the neighboring Coachella Valley farmers, who must approve any transfer.

In a state where water rights are based on historic use, no party gets a greater share of the Colorado River than the Imperial Irrigation District. Desert farms there use enough water to supply 16 million people a year. Urban Southern California has sought for at least 15 years to buy water from those farmers and ship it by canal to the coast.

In the mid-1980s, the MWD arranged to buy enough water from the Imperial Irrigation District to supply half a million people. Since 1997, San Diego has sought to make such a deal itself for twice as much water. But that attempt has been complicated by concerns for the ecological health of the Salton Sea.

That giant desert lake in Imperial and Riverside counties is sustained by irrigation water that drains from Imperial Valley farms. Although the Salton Sea is already 30% more salty than the ocean, environmentalists fear that a drastic reduction of Imperial irrigation drainage could make the Salton Sea hyper-saline and lethal to fish.

Residents also fear unhealthful dust storms swirling from an exposed seabed.

“The Salton Sea elevation has to remain constant,” said Wally Leimgruber, an Imperial County supervisor. “That seawater now provides a protective cover from pollutants that could affect the entire Imperial as well as Coachella valleys.”

San Diego had hoped to purchase 200,000 acre-feet of water from the Imperial Valley, enough to supply about 1 million people for a year. But those close to the talks said Imperial Valley farmers are comfortable selling only 130,000 acre-feet to minimize harm to the Salton Sea and soften the economic blow of having farmers stop growing crops.

To get more water, San Diego officials have been negotiating to pick up some of the water they want from the Palo Verde Irrigation District in eastern Riverside County. That would require San Diego to share some of the cost of a deal MWD reached last summer with Palo Verde farmers.

Under that 35-year arrangement, the MWD would pay farmers to not grow crops on up to 29% of their land. The MWD would get enough water for up to half a million people for a year.