IID endorses water bond initiative, suggest DCP may not happen
EL CENTRO — The Imperial Irrigation District officially endorsed a water bond initiative that could be included on the November ballot, which would secure an additional $200 million for the Salton Sea during their board meeting earlier this week.
The $8.8 billion water bond initiative focuses on water infrastructure and investments needed across the state and is a different proposal than the $4.1 billion park bond approved by the legislature last fall, which would also secure $200 million to the Salton Sea.
Gerald Meral, former state Deputy Secretary of Natural Resources Agency, is leading the effort to get the water bond placed on the November ballot and made a presentation the to the IID board on his initiative during the Jan. 16 board meeting.
One of the main goals of the proposed bond is to increase funding for safe drinking water and sets aside $500 million for that purpose.
The other funding categories include watershed restoration, fish and waterfowl habitat, wastewater for disadvantaged communities, urban water conservation, agricultural water conservation, wastewater recycling, desalting, flood management, Oroville Dam repair and stormwater.
IID’s Governmental Affairs Officer Antonio Ortega told the board during the meeting the proposal gathered more than 605,000 signatures and needs only 365,000 to be validated in order to qualify.
Ortega noted that as of last week, the proposed bond had 45 percent of its signatures already validated.
“The proponents are very confident that this will not only qualify, but they think that they will have it qualify before the beginning of next month,” Ortega said.
Last year, the California Natural Resources Agency unveiled a 10-year plan to manage the Salton Sea and mitigate the health impacts caused by exposed dust coming from the shoreline by building shallow ponds for habitat and other dust-suppression projects to cover nearly 30,000 acres.
The price tag to achieve that goal is $383 million, yet only $80 million in funding has been received to date. If both bonds are approved by voters, the entire Salton Sea management program would be funded.
The board unanimously approved the endorsement of the bond.
Drought plan
During the board member comments portion of the meeting, Division 2 Director Bruce Kuhn sought to address some of the information that has been distributed online regarding the status and IID’s role in the Drought Contingency Plan currently under negotiation between Colorado River users.
Kuhn felt the need to address the matter following correspondence himself, the IID and stakeholders have received in recent weeks, which have suggested the IID would be willing to cut its water deliveries in case of a shortage if the DCP is approved.
Rumors of possible cutbacks in California have surfaced as multiple agencies across the southwest have given presentations to their respective boards on the ongoing negotiations, which some have suggested California would cut back up to 350,000 of its apportionment.
Despite these presentations, no official plan or outline has been made public. The earliest reference the Imperial Valley Press could find regarding the potential cutbacks is in an article that appeared in The Nevada Independent on Dec. 17, 2017.
Discussing the rumors Kuhn said, “It amazes me how people can get online and come up with all this crazy stuff and pretty soon its fact. This is not a fact. There is no DCP.”
During the Jan. 30, IID meeting, the board told members of the public who sought more information on the status of the plan negotiations that despite some of the information that has circulated across the southwest the IID had not committed to any cutbacks, a point that was reemphasized again on Tuesday.
“There has been no written agreement delineated at this point in time before any agency action,” said IID water manager Tina Shields.
During the discussion with the board, IID General Manager Kevin Kelley addressed the correspondence the IID has received in recent weeks regarding the plan and in his remarks suggested the DCP may not happen at all.
“There seems to be this insistence that we are operating under a drought contingency plan that you voted on in secret. Not only have you not voted on a DCP, but there is no such thing,” Kelley told the board. “There is no DCP and not likely to be one.
The negotiations regarding the DCP have taken place for a few years with the intent to find a solution that would enable water agencies in the lower Colorado River basin to build elevation at Lake Mead to avoid triggering a shortage that would force cutbacks by Arizona and Nevada.
Due to the senior rights IID has on the Colorado River, it wouldn’t face any cutbacks in the event Lake Mead elevation drops below the first shortage trigger point at 1,075 feet.
However, the DCP agencies are negotiating a way to have all agencies cut back water use in case of a shortage.
The current lake’s elevation sits at 1086.8 feet above sea level but as dwindling levels of precipitation along the basin, the drought conditions in the southwest, the possibility of a shortage has remained a persistent risk.