Groups’ Bid to Block Canal Repair Stymied

A federal judge in Nevada has ruled against environmentalists and Mexican agricultural interests trying to block a U.S. plan to rebuild a leaky stretch of a canal near the border that supplies water to farms in California’s Imperial Valley.

U.S. District Judge Philip Pro dismissed seven of the eight counts in the lawsuit filed in July by two California environmental groups and an economic development council in Mexicali, Mexico.

The groups claimed that water seeping into the ground north of the border but serving people in Mexico cannot be seized by the United States.

Officials for California’s Imperial Irrigation District estimate that 67,000 acre-feet of seepage a year could be prevented by rebuilding a 23-mile stretch of the canal.

That water, enough to supply about 130,000 households, would go to San Diego for municipal use.

In an order issued Thursday, Pro rejected all but one of the lawsuit’s environmental claims and ruled that Mexican farmers had no standing in the U.S. court.

Pro stopped just short of dismissing the entire lawsuit, despite motions to do so filed by Nevada, Arizona and California.

Rene Acuna, the Mexicali council’s executive director, said the group would continue to fight the plan.

“It is very disappointing that the judge believes the U.S. can steal our water without due process simply because we are Mexicans,” Acuna said in a statement.

Other plaintiffs from California are the Azusa-based Citizens United for Resources and the Environment and Desert Citizens Against Pollution, of Rosamond.

A hearing related to the lawsuit’s sole remaining count, which concerns allegations of violations of the National Environmental Policy Act, has been set for mid-March.

The All-American Canal was built in 1928 to supply Colorado River water to the Imperial Valley, where it is used to irrigate more than 700 square miles of cropland.

Southern Nevada Water Authority chief Pat Mulroy has called the exchange between the Imperial Irrigation District and San Diego “the linchpin” of California’s effort to live within its Colorado River allotment.

The $135-million All-American Canal project, which was authorized by Congress in 1988, is slated to go out for bid Feb. 22. Construction is scheduled to begin later this year and wrap up in 2008.