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The Cadiz Water Project has received eleven “friend of the court” briefs filed with California Court of Appeals 4th District by diverse organizations and agencies in support of the project’s environmental approval under California environmental laws. The organizations represent private and public water agencies, labor unions, building industries, businesses and property owners throughout California.
Following the 2012 independent approvals of the Cadiz Water Project by the Santa Margarita Water District (“SMWD”) and the County of San Bernardino, the Center for Biological Diversity (“CBD”) and Tetra Technologies Inc. (“Tetra”), a Texas-based oil and gas conglomerate, filed challenges to the approvals in Superior Court. In 2014, Orange County Superior Court Judge Gail Andler rejected the claims against the project and upheld the public agency approvals. Earlier this year, Tetra and CBD appealed these decisions.
“In a time of unprecedented drought and with the herculean efforts that will be required to solve our state’s water challenges, supporting a project that will carefully protect the resource and generate water by curtailing evaporation was the right thing to do as a friend of the Court,” said James Markman, long time water law expert and pro bono amici counsel for the American Groundwater Trust (AGWT) and the Property & Environment Research Center (PERC) briefs.
The Cadiz Water Project is a public-private partnership that has been developed by the Company in partnership with SMWD, Orange County’s second largest water supplier. The Cadiz Water Project will deliver a new, reliable annual water supply to 400,000 people in San Bernardino County and Southern California.
Under a groundwater management program to be enforced by San Bernardino County, the Project will conserve groundwater that is presently lost to evaporation and high salinity in the eastern Mojave Desert and deliver that water via the Colorado River Aqueduct to multiple water providers without any significant environmental impacts attributable to project operations.
The widely supported Cadiz Water Project was reviewed in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in a public process over 18 months from 2011 to 2012. SMWD served as lead agency and the County of San Bernardino, which regulates groundwater use at the project area, served as a responsible agency in the CEQA process. SMWD and the County agreed to these roles in a Memorandum of Understanding entered into during the CEQA process.
After an extended comment period and extensive public hearings, SMWD certified the Final Environmental Impact Report and approved the Project in July 2012. The County separately affirmed the adequacy of the EIR when it approved the GMMMP for the Project under its Desert Groundwater Management Ordinance in October 2012.
The Cadiz Water Project would create significant local economic benefits, including the creation of nearly 1,500 direct and indirect jobs during construction, and would also diversify the water resources portfolio of many water providers throughout Southern California at a time when water supply reliability is urgently needed.
“In seeking to delay the Project through the Appellate process, CBD and Tetra have sought to needlessly defer its many benefits for the Southern California region,” said Scott S. Slater, Cadiz CEO and President.
The Cadiz Water Project is scheduled to begin construction in 2016.
The following agencies or organizations filed amicus briefs in support of the project: American Groundwater Trust (AGWT), Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA), Building Industry Legal Defense Foundation (BILD), Building Industry Association of the Bay Area (BIABA), California Building Industry Association (CBIA), California Business Property Association (CBPA), California Chamber of Commerce (Cal Chamber), California Association of Sanitation Agencies (CASA), California State Association of Counties (CSAC), Property & Environment Research Center (PERC), Southern California District Council of Laborers (Laborers).
