Construction nears for canal-lining project

By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer
North County Times (San Diego County)


After years of discussion, construction of a canal-lining project
expected to deliver billions of gallons of water a year to San Diego
County residents could start as soon as next week, officials said
Thursday.

Meanwhile, federal courts tossed out ---- for a second time ----
several portions of a legal challenge saying the project would steal
water from Mexican wetlands and groundwater supplies.

Officials from the San Diego County Water Authority said Thursday that
they were pleased with the latest rulings.

However, the latest court decision also means that a challenge to the
project's environmental impact study can continue.

Dan Hentschke, the Water Authority's top lawyer, said water officials
and the environmental group making the challenge had asked federal
judges to render a quick verdict on the challenge, but the courts had
not set a timetable for a decision.

But, Hentschke said, "the challenge won't effect work commencing."

Water officials in Imperial Valley approved contracts to build a
concrete-lined replacement for a 23-mile long section of the valley's
earth-lined, 82-mile long All American Canal last month.
But the project has been discussed for years.

The All American lining project, along with an already under way
project to line a 35-mile stretch of the nearby Coachella Canal, is
being paid for by the state and San Diego County water ratepayers.

Both projects are part of a complex series of agreements among San
Diego County, Imperial valley, Coachella, Metropolitan Water District
and federal officials.

The canal-lining projects are expected to cost roughly $354 million.
The state is kicking in $219 million to help pay for them. The state is
providing funding because the projects would conserve Colorado River
water that is now seeping in to the earth and transfer it to San Diego
County residents. Combined, the two projects are expected to deliver
San Diego County residents their cheapest, most reliable source of
water ---- enough to sustain 154,000 households a year ---- for most
of the next 110 years, starting in 2008.

However, the All American Canal project has proved controversial, and
prompted a number of challenges. In July 2005, an unusual coalition of
Mexican business leaders and California environmental groups sued the
federal government to stop the canal lining. In part, they argued that
the water now percolating through the earth-lined bed of the canal
turned up in Mexican wetlands and groundwater supplies. Lining the
canals would turn off the spigot, steal water that belonged to Mexico,
kill off endangered species living in the wetlands and hurt farming in
Mexicali.

A federal judge threw out those arguments before they got to court in
February, saying the group did not have the legal "standing" to make
the argument because the water rights would be owned by Mexico, not the group. The group refiled its arguments in April, but they were tossed
out again by another federal judge in Nevada last week. However, the
judge ruled that one segment of the challenge filed by a group called
Citizens United for Resources and Environment arguing that the
canal-linings environmental study was incomplete could stand.
Malissa McKeith, spokeswoman for the environmental group, said
memberswere very pleased that the ruling would allow their argument to be heard.