A plan for Mojave groundwater

Groundwater pours into a spreading basin as part of a test operation on Cadiz Ranch.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

An aerial view shows vineyards and lemon groves of the Cadiz Ranch in the Mojave Desert. Federal lands sprawl all around the 34,000 acres the company owns just south of Route 66 near the old railroad stop of Cadiz.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Cadiz Inc. hopes to build a conveyance pipeline along the railroad tracks to export groundwater from the Mojave Desert.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Scott Slater, president and general counsel of Cadiz Inc., left, listens as Terry L. Foreman, a vice president with CH2M HILL, a consulting, design, operations and program management company, talks about water extraction on the grounds of the Cadiz Ranch.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Groundwater has turned this patch of desert into a thriving vineyard.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Seth Shteir, of the National Parks Conservation Assn. walks towards Bonanza Spring, about 11 miles from Cadiz’s proposed well field and the closest of more than two dozen springs in the watershed that drains toward the project area.  (Katie Falkenberg / For The Times)

The sunset lights up cacti in Fenner Basin, about half of which lies in the Mojave National Preserve. Most of the groundwater that Cadiz INc. would pump flows from beneath the basin and rain and snowmelt from bordering mountains naturally replenish the aquifer.  (Katie Falkenberg / For The Times)