MARATHON CADIZ PUBLIC HEARING GOES TO EARLY THIS MORNING

A public hearing last night on the final environmental report on a plan by the Cadiz Company to store water in underground aquifers for sale to more populated areas lasted until early this morning. Reporter Dan Stork was at the meeting’s teleconference at Copper Mountain College and files this first of two reports. A public hearing on the Cadiz Valley Water Conservation, Recovery, and Storage Project started at 6:30 p.m., and stretched into the wee hours Thursday morning. Project backers want to pump groundwater from the Fenner Valley in the eastern Mojave and deliver it to other areas of California, including south Orange County. After introductory remarks by officials and others connected with the project, and by Cadiz president Scott Slater, 110 speakers – 19 via teleconferencing technology from the Bell Center at Copper Mountain College, and 91 in Mission Viejo – weighed in with their opinions on the project. Supporters emphasized the necessity, safety, scientific soundness, and conservation values of the project, as well as its business-friendliness. Opponents denied all those qualities (except the last), and accused many proponents of naked greed and unreflective consumerism. We’ll report on the decisions reached by the Santa Margarita Water District Board of Governors in a later story.