Solutions & Hurdles
Crucial Water Transfer Faces Deep Skepticism in Imperial Valley

At the water forum, Maureen Stapleton and Andy Horne, two supposed partners, spoke with noticeably different enthusiasm about the 75-year deal their respective water agencies signed in 1998 to transfer up to 200,000 acre feet annually from Imperial Valley to San Diego. Stapleton, general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority, said her agency’s top priority was to get the water transfer and conservation program implemented.

Maureen Stapleton, CWA General Manager

By contrast, Horne, who is president of the Imperial Irrigation District (IID) board of directors, sounded as if he were still negotiating the deal. “To many people in the Valley,” he said, “this commitment really flies in the face of a great deal of public concern and skepticism about the wisdom of transferring such a valuable resource.”

The largest irrigation district in the nation, IID has the right to 3.8 million acre feet annually from the Colorado River. Recently, it has come under pressure from other districts to use its water more efficiently or lose some. “We believe we do use that water very efficiently,” Horne said, pointing out that under current conservation agreements, when fully implemented, IID will conserve annually a total of 500,000 acre feet for transfer to California urban water users. “We feel that is a major contribution,” he said.

Andy Horne, IID Pres.

The San Diego deal has raised a variety of concerns in Imperial Valley (see Imperial Valley's Questions; San Diego's Answers), but behind them all lies the worry that they will continue to be pressed to transfer more and more water out of farming to urban areas, leaving them without enough water of their own to diversify and develop their economy.

“We’d like to be able to attract new growth and development as we attempt to diversify our economy outside of the box, if you will, of what has traditionally been an agricultural area,” Horne said. “So it needs to be a two-way street. We need to see some benefit coming to the Imperial Valley as we look forward to our future.”

As a way to solidify the water deal, a genuine partnership in economic development between San Diego and Imperial also seemed to be on Maureen Stapleton’s mind. “The transfer will potentially pump up to $50 million a year into the Imperial economy,” she said, “and we want to work together with IID and their community to make sure that it happens in a way that benefits the community. There’s a variety of economic development opportunities that we want to make sure we don’t miss."

Transfer Would Create Greater Security

The reason the water transfer is CWA’s highest priority can be seen at a glance from the charts below. Even with substantial additional conservation and development of new local sources, including desalinization and recycling, the vast majority of San Diego’s water in 2020 would still need to be imported.

The CWA’s goal is to make the supply of that imported water as secure as possible by reducing reliance upon the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) from 84 percent to 36 percent, thus using only MWD water to which San Diego has preferential rights.

In 2020, after purchasing 25 percent of its water from IID, San Diego would still need to import an additional 11 percent, or 89,000 acre feet, from another water agency.

For this greater supply and security, CWA is prepared to pay somewhere around $3 billion over 75 years, while asking $235 million from the state of California to help with canal linings and conjunctive use programs, and another possible $113 million from the federal government for water management and environmental enhancement projects around the Salton Sea, in Imperial Valley and on the Colorado.

“This is highly unusual,” said Stapleton.”Usually the Feds give you the most money, the State gives you the next most and the local agencies kick in 5% or 10%.”

Big Question: How Will Water Get Here?

A question that has no answer yet is how San Diego and the Baja coastal area will import the additional water they need.

The current aqueducts won’t do. The Rio Colorado-Tijuana Aqueduct is at capacity, and the Metropolitan Water District has said San Diego can use the Colorado River Aqueduct for its water transfer for only 30 years, even though its transfer agreement with the Imperial Irrigation District (IID) extends for 75 years.

In 1999, the International Boundary and Water Commission provided federal authorization for a study to evaluate whether a joint regional aqueduct may be a practical, cost-effective option.

The state of California has agreed to provide $2.5 million of the study’s costs, and the San Diego County Water Authority (CWA) has committed up to $500,000. A key assumption of the study is that a joint facility will only transport water to which the United States and Mexico are legally entitled.

The study, which is expected to be complete within the next two months, includes potential aqueduct routes, potential sites for related water storage and water treatment facilities, and a conceptual project-financing plan that includes an evaluation of potential private proposals for construction and operation of the aqueduct.

In addition to the governmental study, the CWA, the state of Baja California and a private group formed by Proxima Gas, S.A. de C.V., General Power, Inc., and Emetec, S.A. de C.V. have agreed to coordinate efforts related to a private sector proposal for a joint aqueduct.

Whatever the conclusion of the study, any effort to create a new
aqueduct is sure to mobilize significant opposition. (See New Aqueduct Would Not Be an Easy Sell.)