The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approved a request by Cadiz Inc. to build a water pipeline on a railroad right-of-way through federal land to deliver water to Southern California, Politico reports.
A 2015 Obama-era ruling had prevented Cadiz from using the railroad right-of-way, concluding that the water pipeline did not serve a railroad-related purpose, the Los Angeles Times reports.
BLM Acting Director Mike Nedd killed the ruling, however, and allowed Cadiz to use the railroad right-of-way instead of applying for its own, according to Politico.
“We have long maintained that the 2015 evaluation by BLM was wrong on the law, wrong on the facts,” Cadiz president and CEO Scott Slater said in a statement after the rule was thrown away. “We are grateful for the determined bi-partisan Congressional effort that sought a deeper, fair and unbiased review of the Project’s proposed use of the right-of-way by BLM and are tremendously satisfied to finally have this matter resolved.”
The company plans to pump enough water to serve 100,000 homes for 50 years. The company could earn between $1 billion and $2 billion in revenue.
Cadiz executives began the project in the mid-1990s after buying old railroad land to grow desert crops. The company tapped into an aquifer with wells that could each pump 2,000 gallons of water per minute, according to the Las Angeles times.
After deciding to change their business model and begin selling water instead of produce, the Cadiz businessmen hit resistance from critics claiming the company would profit off a public resource. The desert aquifer the Cadiz wells pulled from is a public resource and supports desert springs used by wildlife.
“It’s taking a public resource that originates on public land, privatizing it and selling it back to the public,” National Parks Conservation Association’s (NPCA) Seth Shteir told the Los Angeles Times in 2012 after 12 environmental groups challenged the project. “This water is going to Orange County lawns and swimming pools. The desert is being asked to shoulder the burden.”
Cadiz maintains that its wells will have minimal effects on the springs and wildlife, as the springs are located in a much higher elevation than the aquifer and replenish themselves through runoff, not the water deep within the ground.
“There’s no way we could affect springs up [in the mountains],” senior hydrogeologist and vice president of CH2M HILL Terry Forman told the Los Angeles Times in 2012.
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