The Cadiz water project—a plan to pump water from a desert aquifer and sell it to a water agency in Orange County—has hit another obstacle. Last month, the State Lands Commission sent a letter to Cadiz saying that Cadiz’s route to pipe the water to the Santa Margarita Water District would cross a 200-foot-wide strip of state land, which would require a lease from the state. Two of the three State Lands Commission members who would have to approve the lease are Governor Jerry Brown and Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, both of whom have opposed the Cadiz water project in the past. A Cadiz spokeswoman told the Los Angeles Times that the company doesn’t “see anything in the state letter that impacts our ability to complete the project.” Cadiz’s plans to pump out enough groundwater every year to supply 100,000 homes could earn it $1 to $2 billion in revenue. Critics of the project say that Cadiz will deplete the aquifer by pumping out more water than can be replaced naturally; Cadiz claims that in 50 years, the water in the aquifer will only be depleted by 3 to 13 percent.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-cadiz-pipeline-20171006-story.html
