The plan by Cadiz Inc. to bring groundwater from the Mojave Desert east of Twentynine Palms to Orange County won a big legal case yesterday. The California 4th District Appellate Court decision in Santa Ana upheld six lower court decisions on governmental approvals and environmental reviews of the controversial water project. The Cadiz project is a partnership with the Santa Margarita Water and other districts. The Center for Biological Diversity in Oakland challenged the California Environmental Quality Act study that was used in the approval process and whether San Bernardino County had rights to approve the project. Primary concerns were the project’s impact on desert water resources and the effect on desert wildlife such as bighorn sheep and desert tortoise. While a major step, the decision is not the final hurdle for Cadiz. Last year the U.S. Bureau of Land Management rejected Cadiz’s proposal to use an old railway right-of-way to build a 43-mile pipeline from the Fenner Valley, about 40 miles north and east of Twentynine Palms, to the Colorado River Aqueduct, where the water could be delivered for distribution.
