Congressman Paul Cook is calling statements that a pending decision on the Mojave Trails National Monument is tied to the Cadiz Water proposal false. Wednesday, reacting to the announcement that the Sand to Snow monument will not be changed, The Mojave Desert Land Trust issued a statement that said, “Secretary Zinke’s recommendation for Mojave Trails National Monument is tied to the controversial Cadiz Inc. water project, which looks to pump groundwater from an aquifer surrounded by the national monument to coastal cities.” Cook fired back, saying, “Certain members of the environmental community are creating a false narrative that the Cadiz water project is somehow tied to the boundary of Mojave Trails National Monument. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Cadiz project is outside of both the current boundary of the Mojave Trails – a boundary created behind closed doors by the Obama administration – as well the bipartisan boundary established by my desert legislation and in Senator Feinstein’s legislation. The purposefully misleading narrative by these groups is an effort to justify the executive overreach of the Obama administration in establishing the boundaries of Mojave Trails. These groups should be condemned for their deception, and they should be ashamed of their support of a boundary that was established without proper vetting by the public or by Congress.”
