Imperial Farmers Urge Panel to Block U.S. Water Ruling

In a last-minute plea, Imperial Valley farmers Tuesday asked Southern California members of Congress to block an expected ruling from the federal government that the farmers are wasting water and should have their allocation from the Colorado River reduced.

The plea came with a threat: If the government tries again to take some of the valley’s water, the Imperial Irrigation District will fight to the U.S. Supreme Court to protect the water rights of the farmers.

At the same hearing, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) blamed Southern California’s inability to reach a water deal not on the farmers but on what he sees as the Metropolitan Water District’s reluctance to approve a deal for the Imperial Irrigation District to sell water to San Diego County.

“Who are you to stop this thing?” demanded Hunter as he pointed his finger at MWD Vice President Adan Ortega. The MWD, wholesaler to local agencies in six counties, owns the aqueduct needed to transport some of the Imperial Valley’s share of the Colorado to San Diego.

Although the three-hour session of the House subcommittee on water and power did not appear to push the complex issue closer to resolution, it provided a forum in which warring water agencies could air their grievances and seek congressional intervention.

Unable to broker a deal among California water agencies, the Bush administration has used a strategy that has mixed rewards and punishments. So far, nothing has worked, and the deal that once seemed close to being finalized is mired in litigation and rising animosity.

The California agencies are being pressured to find a way to live within a “water budget” and stop relying on so-called surplus water from the Colorado, water that belongs to other states. Like its Democratic predecessor, the Bush administration favors a plan for water-rich farmers to sell water to thirsty coastal cities.

A deal between Imperial and San Diego collapsed on New Year’s Eve, just hours before a deadline that had been set two years earlier. The Department of Interior then followed through on its threat to cut the state’s allocation of the Colorado River and suspend the rules that allowed the MWD to buy surplus water.

Since then, the four agencies involved in the prospective sale -- Imperial, Metropolitan, the San Diego County Water Authority and the Coachella Valley Water District -- have been unable to agree on terms, despite intervention by the federal government and by Gov. Gray Davis.

Lloyd Allen, president of the Imperial agency, the nation’s largest agricultural irrigation district, testified that farmers are not opposed to selling some of their mammoth share of the river.

But if the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation attempts to take water from the district without compensation, farmers are prepared to fight to the Supreme Court, said Allen, whose homespun demeanor and white cowboy hat belie his reputation among water officials as a tough negotiator and a Western water law expert.

An official with the bureau testified that his agency, which controls the Colorado River and divvies up its supplies among seven Western states, has no choice but to complete the “beneficial use” study requested by a federal judge.

The bureau decision, considered a foregone conclusion by most water officials, is expected this week.

Allen noted that the Imperial agency has already beaten the federal government once in court this year.

After Interior Secretary Gale Norton reduced the district’s allocation by 10%, Imperial successfully sued to overturn that order -- although the San Diego judge who ordered the cut restored also ordered the beneficial-use study before making a final decision.

“I didn’t know if I was going to grow any wheat when I got that first order” reducing the allocation, Allen said. “But I did” after the cut was restored, “and it was a ... fine crop, I’ll tell you.”

The order by U.S. District Judge Thomas Whelan that restored the allocation to Imperial also led to reduced allocations for the MWD and Coachella.

Those agencies have now accused Imperial of wasteful irrigation practices.

Under a grilling by Hunter, the MWD’s Ortega said the agency is concerned about a proposal to spend $200 million of state bond funds on environmental issues linked to the San Diego-Imperial plan.

Ortega said the water sale was not mentioned on the list of projects submitted to voters during the election leading to passage of the bond issue. He added that using public funds to grease the wheels of the sale could set a precedent encouraging subsidies for other water deals.

Hunter was unmoved. He revived a threat that other legislative critics of the MWD have made in recent years: that the Legislature could disband Metropolitan.

“All creatures created by the state of California, including big water agencies, can be dissolved by the state of California or adversely affected by the state of California,” Hunter told Ortega.

Annoyed at their behemoth neighbor’s historic demands on the Colorado, officials of six other states that depend on the river have pressured the federal government to force California to reach an agreement. Representatives of Utah and Arizona carried that theme to the hearing.

“We are very disappointed at the bickering between the various agencies,” said D. Larry Anderson, director of the Utah Division of Water Resources.

Said Herb Guenther, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, “We are very interested in putting these cats back in the bag and bringing this issue to closure.”