Proposal Could Rescue Regional Water Deal

As the region’s rival water agencies met for an all-day negotiating session Wednesday, the Imperial Valley water district unveiled a proposal it says could rescue a deal vital to the future of Southern California water supplies.

The plan calls for using water from a little-known desert aquifer in Imperial County to keep the Salton Sea from becoming too salty to support the countless fish and birds that rely on it.

The Salton Sea, the malodorous, tea-colored body of water that straddles Imperial and Riverside counties, has become a sticking point in the proposed sale of water from the water-rich Imperial Irrigation District to San Diego County because state and federal laws require that the sea not be damaged by the sale.

Because the sea is replenished by agricultural runoff, any reduction of water use in Imperial County could inevitably mean a higher salt content, which could lead to the virtual extinction of birds and fish in the sea.

The Imperial Irrigation District, in a counter to a proposal made by the San Diego County Water Authority, suggested that the Salton Sea could be helped by water from the largely untapped East Mesa aquifer.

The aquifer’s water is considered too salty for farming but is less saline than the Salton Sea. The East Mesa idea was first suggested months ago by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine).

The Imperial Valley-San Diego deal is crucial to the state’s plan to reduce the amount of water it takes annually from the Colorado River in excess of its legal entitlement.

The latest proposal was made public as representatives of the San Diego, Imperial Valley, Metropolitan and Coachella Valley water districts met in Los Angeles for a negotiating session arranged by Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks).

“People are here working hard to reach a consensus,” Hertzberg said at day’s end. “The talks have been very constructive.”

If the state does not meet a Dec. 31 deadline for completing the deal, the Department of the Interior has threatened a mandatory reduction.

That could mean drastically reduced water for the six counties served by the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

But the farmers of Imperial Valley have balked at signing a deal with San Diego because they think that it calls for too much fallowing of farmland, and that it unfairly leaves Imperial Valley with the burden of solving the Salton Sea’s environmental problems.

John Penn Carter III, lawyer and lead negotiator for the Imperial district, said all parties to the proposed agreement “will need to sacrifice--including finding mitigation water for the Salton Sea.”

Wednesday’s counterproposal calls for San Diego to buy less water, farmers to do less fallowing of land, and the financial terms to be rearranged so that more money goes to help businesses hurt financially by a reduction in farming.

“While the counteroffer is not entirely acceptable, it has some positive elements,” said Adan Ortega, vice president for external affairs for Metropolitan. “We’re committed to working to reach an ultimate agreement.”

Gov. Gray Davis has not said whether he will sign a bill passed in the final days of the legislative session--SB 482 by state Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica)--that is meant to help the Imperial-San Diego water deal by decreasing the amount of protection afforded seven species of birds and fish at the Salton Sea.