HAPPENING TODAY
50 years ago
Are Imperial Valley’s water rights on the Colorado River being sold down the river of politics?
This disturbing question is on the minds of California water leaders meeting today at Sacramento to develop a unified state position on Colorado River legislation now before Congress.
Attending the meeting are Carl Bevins, executive vice president of Imperial Irrigation District, and IID’s chief legal counsel, Reginald L. Knox Jr.
Bevins said yesterday before he left for Sacramento that IID would insist that any acceptable bill must include two statements:
1) A guarantee that California receive in perpetuity its 4.4 million acre-feet of Colorado River water as provided in the U.S. Supreme Court decision; and
2) Authorization for a feasibility study on importation of water from other basins, such as the Columbia, or augmentation from other sources.
40 years ago
CALEXICO — Local school board members Henry Legaspi and Eduardo Rivera have indicated they intend to resign from the board following a controversial Monday night meeting.
Legaspi, who has served on the board for more than 16 years, announced his decision during Monday night’s meeting. Rivera informed school Superintendent Joe M. Carrillo of his decision early today, according to a district source.
While both men apparently stepped down for different reasons, their decisions dovetail with ongoing negotiations with the Calexico Community Action Council (CCAC).
Monday night, for example, school board President Legaspi called himself one of the main obstacles to a settlement with the CCAC over a disputed five-acre school site.
On the other hand, Rivera, 28, who is due to face re-election next year, apparently resigned from the board in the wake of an incompatibility suit filed against him Monday by a local resident.
30 years ago
Questions of law and philosophy separate the Imperial Irrigation District and the Metropolitan Water District in their continuing water transfer negotiations, but at the root of these differences is money.
Even since the first round of negotiations broke down more than two years ago, the two agencies have jockeyed back and forth over whether the IID is selling water or Metropolitan is paying for conservation; whether state law or federal law governs the IID’s conserved water.
Despite the intervening months and completion of more studies and reports, the most recent positions of the IID and Metropolitan, $288 and $100 per acre-foot respectively for 100,000 acre-feet of water, are reminiscent of the $250 and $100 per acre-foot offers over which the negotiations broke down for the second time during the summer of 1986.
“The point is, Metropolitan is only willing to pay so much, and what they’re willing to pay is what they’re willing to pay,” said IID attorney John Carter.