March 20, 2018
ATTEND TUESDAY EVENING WATER BOARD MEETING AND TELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES NOT TO SIGN ON WITH CADIZ!
March 20, 2018 5:30 PM 602 East Huntington Drive, Suite B, Monrovia 91016
Tuesday evening is when your local water board will give the Cadiz water grab an up or down vote. Right now, the vote is too close to call. We need your help. Please come to the water board meeting and cheer on anti-Cadiz speakers, hold up a sign outside or even speak for a minute against the project.
YOUR ATTENDANCE WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE AND SEND A MESSAGE TO THE BOARD. Come early if you can and join volunteers outside who will be conducting an informational picket beginning at 4 PM.
Their harmful scheme involves removing water from the already moisture-challenged Mojave Desert under Joshua Tree National Park and other public lands and pumping it to the San Gabriel Valley. Don’t sign up for the contaminated Cadiz water that puts kids and families at risk. Don’t give Cadiz a blank check to raise our water rates. Don’t support a project that will remove the underground water that feeds surface springs essential for the survival of desert life.
The Metropolitan Water District has found that Cadiz project water is contaminated with chromium (Cr6), a known carcinogen, along with arsenic and other substances unsafe for human consumption. Removing all of these contaminants from Cadiz water – if it can be done – will be expensive. Even without contaminant removal Cadiz water would cost more than current suppliers. Who will end up footing the bill? Upper District rate payers like me. Singing the Letter of Intent is like giving a blank check for Cadiz. Please don’t do it.
We need a sustainable water future. California is already doing a great job conserving water, an inexpensive way to meet our water needs that doesn’t risk the public health. Enhanced conservation, rain water capture and reclamation efforts could generate good paying jobs right here locally. These options are recognized in the Upper District staff analysis.
There are moral and environmental reasons not to sign the Letter of Intent. Much of the water Cadiz would remove is located under cherished public lands like Joshua Tree National Park, the Mojave Trails National Monument, and the Mojave Preserve. No private corporation has the right to damage the public’s land for its own profit. I urge you reject the harmful Cadiz water grab and leave desert water in the desert to support its already water-challenged natural life -- from big horn sheep to the desert tortoise and our magnificent Joshua Trees. Note that these public lands are enjoyed by many thousands of San Gabriel Valley residents annually.
For more information John Monsen
wildernessjfm@aol.com(818) 427-5699