July 31, 2019
By John Monsen. Sierra Club activists and friends at Bonanza Springs, an area of the Mojave Desert that will be protected from the Cadiz water mining project by the new legislation (Clockwise from top left, Moises Cisneros, Chris Clarke, Asma Mahdi, Nidia Erceg, Jenny Binstock).
Today Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 307 into law, dealing a major setback to the Cadiz Inc water mining project in the Mojave Desert. The legislation, a victory for the Sierra Club and its allies, will require a stringent safety review by the State Lands Commission of projects that could impact desert water resources. The governor noted that the new state review will be based on “independent scientific analysis” and that for a project to go forward it must demonstrate “certainty that it will not threaten important natural our cultural resources.”
Cadiz had hoped to extract 16 billion gallons of water a year from underneath the Mojave Trails National Monument near Joshua Tree National Park. Adding to momentum to passage of the bill were two recent scientific studies confirming earlier findings by the United States Geological Survey that the Cadiz project was unsustainable and would dry up springs essential to the survival of desert life. In December 2018 the Department of Fish and Wildlife found the project’s environmental review (EIR) to be inadequate.
SB 307 was authored by State Senator Richard Roth of Riverside and championed by principal co-authors Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) and Anthony Portantino (D-Pasadena). It gives the State Lands Commission two years to review the Cadiz project in consultation with the Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Department of Water Resources. For Cadiz to go forward the commission must certify that the project “will not adversely affect the natural or cultural resources” of public lands in the Mojave Desert. This will be a challenging standard for Cadiz to meet but that doesn’t mean they won’t try.
The Cadiz response has been to fund over a million dollars in “independent” research by the Three Valleys Municipal Water District (San Dimas, Claremont, Pomona) that is not independent of Cadiz, Cadiz funding or Cadiz-allied consultants. They hope to use the results with the State Land Commission. Read about the Cadiz-funded studies here. Our job now is to make sure that no one takes these new Cadiz-funded studies seriously. If you want to help out, contact the author John Monsen and join the Angeles Chapter Water Committee.’’
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John Monsen is a long-time public lands and equity advocate who is President of JFM Consulting. John received an Angeles Chapter Extraordinary Achievement Award in 2017 for his forest protection work. He previously served on the Sierra Club National Field Staff in Los Angeles. John is a member of the Angeles Chapter and Sierra Club California Water Committees and he is Co-Chair of its Chapter Forest Committee.