The California Senate failed to pass a bill Friday that would have imposed additional environmental review from the state on a controversial water project in the Mojave Desert. Developers of the Cadiz water project plan to pump 16 billion gallons of water from an aquifer and sell it to water agencies in Orange County. The bill would have given the Department of Fish and Wildlife and the state Lands Commission the authority to study the project to make sure it did not harm the aquifer and the surrounding desert.
Despite support from the governor, lieutenant governor, the Los Angeles mayor, Native American tribes, and state senators, SB 120 failed to move out of committee for a vote. David Lamfrom with the National Parks Conservation Association said, “Blocking a final vote on SB120 furthers Trump administration actions to remove required federal review of the Cadiz project.”
A spokeswoman for Cadiz said, “SB 120 was an attempt by its proponents at the 11th hour of session to change the rules of the game for Cadiz, but the bill also risked so much more — water reliability, jobs, and the integrity of California’s environmental laws.”
