The U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California today issued the final environmental documentation on a groundwater storage and water transfer project proposed in California's Mojave Desert.

The Cadiz Groundwater Storage and Dry-Year Supply Program is a cooperative program between Metropolitan and Santa Monica-based Cadiz, Inc. that proposes to store water from the Colorado River in the groundwater basin underlying part of the Cadiz and Fenner Valleys in San Bernardino County.  When water is needed, the proposed project would allow stored water to be pumped and delivered to urban Southern California.  The project also would offer transfers of local indigenous groundwater, under specified conditions, to Metropolitan in dry years.

The proposed Cadiz project is among the portfolio of resource management programs Metropolitan is pursuing to shore-up Southern California's supply reliability from the Colorado River.  The Cadiz project and other groundwater storage and water transfer programs along Metropolitan's Colorado River Aqueduct also have been proposed as part of California's plan to reduce the state's use of Colorado River water.

The program's final environmental impact statement and environmental impact report analyze the potential environmental impacts and mitigation measures for a range of alternatives, including the agencies' preferred alternative.  The preferred alternative, called the eastern alternative, includes a right-of-way from BLM for a 34.6-mile pipeline that would cross public lands from Metropolitan's aqueduct to Cadiz's private lands.  The final documentation also addresses questions and concerns raised in more than 1,000 comment letters received in response to the project's draft and supplemental environmental documentation.

Among the measures identified in the final EIS/EIR is a detailed groundwater monitoring and management plan developed by the agencies in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Park Service and San Bernardino County.  This comprehensive plan will protect identified critical resources and govern all water storage and extraction activities in the project area and surrounding lands, if the project is approved.  The plan would be overseen by BLM, in consultation with a technical review panel, comprised of representatives from NPS, USGS, San Bernardino County and other federal and state agencies.  The provisions of the management plan would be enforced by BLM through terms and conditions of the right-of-way grant that would be issued if the project is approved.

A draft EIS/EIR was published in November 1999 and a supplement to the draft was published in October 2000. The final EIS/EIR, issued by BLM and MWD, with NPS and USGS as official cooperators, includes all public comments received by the agencies in writing and at several public hearings held on the proposal, along with the agencies' responses to the comments.  Review copies are available at local libraries in Barstow, Needles, San Bernardino and Twentynine Palms, and online at  www.mwdh20.com  and www.ca.blm.gov/needles/nepa01.html.

Copies or letters announcing the document's availability are also being mailed to affected agencies and those who commented on the draft or supplement.  Printed or digital copies on compact disk also will be available upon request.

Notice of availability of the final EIS/EIR will be published in the Federal Register on Oct. 5, 2001.  Since authorization of the proposed pipeline right-of-way would require an amendment to the California Desert Conservation Area Plan for an exception to the utility corridor requirement, the public may protest the proposed plan amendment by Nov. 5, 2001 to BLM's National Director (Director, Bureau of Land Management, Protest Coordinator 1050LS, Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20240).

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