Human bones found near Fenner

By JOHN M. BLODGETT
Press-Enterprise

Bones found by a surveyor near Essex Road near Fenner on Friday afternoon were identified as human on Saturday, March 26, according to a San Bernardino County Coroner news release.

Homicide detectives then took over the investigation and found more bones in the same area on Saturday.
Fenner is about 40 miles west of Needles on I-40.

Anyone with information is asked to call detectives at 909-387-3589 or the anonymous We-Tip Hotline at 800-782-7463, or to visit the We-Tip website at www.wetip.com.

Plans unveiled for Mojave Desert tourist train, museum

As part of its plan to mine underground water supplies, Los Angeles-based Cadiz Inc. is proposing a tourist steam engine, museum and cultural center in the Mojave Desert.

BY JANET ZIMMERMAN
Press Enterprise

Cadiz Inc., the Los Angeles-based company proposing a water mining operation in the Mojave Desert, released plans Friday, Sept. 20, for steam train excursions and a museum, but environmentalists called it a ploy to avoid federal review of its groundwater pumping project.

The Cadiz Valley Water Conservation, Recovery and Storage Project would extract groundwater from beneath 45,000 acres that Cadiz owns south of the Marble Mountains, 40 miles east of Twentynine Palms. The area lies between the Mojave National Preserve and Joshua Tree National Park in eastern San Bernardino County.

Environmental groups have filed lawsuits to block the $225 million development, which would provide water for about 400,000 people served by six water districts throughout California, including Jurupa Community Services District in Riverside County.

The pipeline would run along 43 miles of track owned by the Arizona & California Railroad Co. Because part of the railroad right-of-way crosses federal lands, environmentalists say the project is subject to federal review under the National Environmental Policy Act, which would evaluate environmental impacts.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, and Rep. Paul Cook, R-Yucca Valley, have called for a federal review of the project and questioned its impacts on the Mojave National Preserve.

To avoid a government evaluation, the Department of the Interior requires that the pipeline along the right-of-way must have a direct impact on the rail system.

On Friday, Cadiz announced its agreement with the railroad to use its tracks. As part of the agreement, Cadiz will provide water from the project to power the trains, wash dirty freight cars run by Arizona & California, and supply fire hydrants along 35 wooden railroad trestles, Cadiz President Scott Slater said.

Seth Shteir California desert senior representative for the National Parks Conservation Association, accused Cadiz of concocting the tourist train idea to avoid scrutiny by the U.S. Geological Survey of its inflated recharge rates in the ancient aquifer.

Cadiz plans to pump an average of 50,000 acre-feet per year – more than 16 billion gallons – from beneath the remote valley.

In environmental documents, Cadiz says the recharge rate is 32,500 acre-feet per year, but independent estimates have placed recharge at 2,000 to 10,000 acre-feet per year.

The National Park Service has said the project would likely drain surrounding springs that supply water for wildlife.

Slater said an earlier version of the pumping project, which was larger and more impactful, already cleared federal study. The previous version crossed open public lands, but this one was intentionally placed on an active railroad right-of-way to avoid environmental impacts.

“What they’re looking for is duplicative. They’re interested in shopping until they can get somebody who agrees with them,” Slater said.

The company said the Cadiz Southeastern Railway would also draw in tourist dollars with a depot-style museum and cultural center on the Cadiz property that would include information on the local desert and railroad history. Slater wants to make it a destination.

One of the steam engines would be locomotive 3751, built in 1927 and housed at California Steel Industries in Fontana. The restored engine is owned by the San Bernardino Railroad Historical Society. Cadiz is also negotiating to buy two engines and rail cars that can be opened up to provide star gazing, Slater said.

“The steam train is an original fixture of the Cadiz area - an important historical asset intimately connected to the local culture – and offers a rewarding way to invest locally and promote the unique desert environment,” Slater said in a statement. “As a 30-year member of the Mojave Desert community, we have long appreciated the area’s majesty and appeal and are proud to diversify our business with this exciting new venture.”

The Cadiz railroad would operate on existing tracks on a portion of the Arizona & California Railroad Co. between Parker, Ariz. and Cadiz, with water stops in the California desert communities of Milligan, Chubbuck, Rice and Vidal.

The Mojave Desert Route, off historic Route 66, “provides sweeping views of the vast desert wilderness, mountainous terrain and the Colorado River,” the company said.

Brad Ovitt, a senior vice president for Genesee & Wyoming Inc. in Darien, Conn., which owns the Arizona & California railroad, said the track-sharing deal is a first in this region for his company. Terms of the agreement are confidential.

Needles City Council reiterates objection to water project

By JENNIFER DENEVAN
Needles Desert Star

NEEDLES — In a split vote, city council members approved sending a copy of an earlier letter stating their opposition to the Cadiz Valley Water Conservation, Recovery and Storage Project to several more recipients.

There was some confusion during the Aug. 27 meeting as to who received that first letter, which was sent about a year ago. The letter, which stated the council’s disapproval of the project, was sent to Cadiz and was included in the environmental impact report being completed at the time.

Council member Tom Darcy wanted to have that same letter disbursed to additional people. His motion included sending the letter to state senators, San Bernardino County Supervisor Robert Lovingood and to government officials in Sacramento.

Lesley Thornburg, operations manager for Cadiz, Inc., gave a presentation regarding the Cadiz water project to council in the Aug. 27 meeting. She spoke on various elements of the project Cadiz has planned and the benefits it will have for the area.

Thornburg gave background regarding Cadiz. The company was founded in 1983 and owns 45,000 acres of land. They also have water rights in three San Bernardino County locations.

They’ve been farming on their land for 20 years and farm organic grapes, citrus and other types of crops, she said. The focus of the presentation was the water project.

She said the phase I portion of the project is completely approved, having completed the California Environmental Quality Act. The next steps include complete construction of a well field, natural gas power resource and solar facilities.

Cadiz plans to construct a 43-mile buried pipeline to the Colorado River aqueduct within an Arizona-California Railroad right of way. They would deliver, on average, 50,000 acre-feet of water annually to providers over a 50-year period that’s subject to a management plan, she said.

Thornburg said it will be a new reliable source for more than 100,000 families every year. Water users in six counties, including San Bernardino, Riverside, Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura and Imperial, would all receive water. The largest portion would stay in San Bernardino County, she continued.

Thornburg also discussed various projected benefits of the project. She claimed there will be many benefits to the community, including stimulation of the local economy, reduction of demands on Colorado River water, creation of just under 6,000 jobs and will mean about $6 million in tax revenue. Of that, about $600,000 will go to the school district, she continued.

Tom Henderson, project lead for the hydrology portion, also spoke. He reviewed elements of the project. He explained how all the rigorous measuring and testing corroborated the recharge that’s estimated.

He said Cadiz knew there would be questions about the recharge, they also did a variety of “what if” situations and modeled them. There was no significance impact found in any of those scenarios, he added.

Henderson also pointed out the project did get CEQA certified and CEQA is the most stringent environmental law in the U.S. No problems were found with the project, he added.

He said there are several early warning features set up to evaluate the response of the project to actual pumping and if not acting as predicted, the project would be adjusted.

It’s not optional, he said. San Bernardino County will regulate and provide oversight.

Darcy expressed several concerns about the project, including concerns about water being sent to Los Angeles and Orange Counties. Other council members echoed his comments, making statements of how those counties need to find other ways to serve their residents.

Additional concerns centered on how much water is proposed to be pumped and the potential negative impacts if there isn’t recharge. Council members generally agreed that sending another letter to show their continued disapproval of the project is needed.

Terry Campbell, council member, said he doesn’t approve of the project, but he also didn’t agree with sending another letter. “Have you really thought what you’re asking for?” he asked.

Campbell said the problem with a letter is that it may encourage federal government to step in and would possibly mean taking away private citizens’ property rights, which isn’t right. He felt it best to not take any action, he added.

There were additional comments made regarding previous situations where property rights were taken away and the possible negative impacts of the project. Sending a copy of the original letter to more representatives won out for the night.

Cadiz company spokeswoman claims water project safe, sustainable

By JENNIFER DENEVAN
Needles Desert Star

NEEDLES — While the city council decided to reiterate their stance on the Cadiz water project during their meeting Aug. 27, Cadiz also had a response.

“The Project has been reviewed and approved under the most stringent environmental law in the United States and includes unprecedented enforcement measures to ensure that operations are safe and sustainable,” Courtney Degener, Cadiz spokeswoman, said in a prepared statement.

The response comes after the council voted to resend a letter disapproving of the Cadiz water project. They approved sending the letter to government officials in Sacramento, state senators and Robert Lovingood, San Bernardino County District One Supervisor.

“We were disappointed in the action taken by the Council this week, because Needles, which is 80 miles away from the project area and in an entirely different watershed, is one of the population centers that would benefit from employment opportunities and new tax revenue offered by the project, including $1,000 per pupil for Needles’ students every year,” she said.

“Additionally, San Bernardino County and the desert will receive significant water supply benefits from the project - more than 20 percent of project supplies have already been reserved for county-based water uses - and the city of Needles could easily take delivery via an exchange along the Colorado River,” Degener said.

“We appreciate the support of the local business community and look forward to ultimately working with the Council to deliver the many real long-term local benefits promised by the project,” Degener said.

Chemehuevi Tribe Weighs In Against Cadiz Desert H2O Extraction Project

San Bernardino Sentinel

NEEDLES — The Chemehuevi Tribe has added its protest to the growing chorus of opposition to the Cadiz Water Project, which is purposed to transfer up to 50,000 acre-feet of water from the East Mojave Desert to Orange and Los Angeles counties and was given project approval by an Orange County Water District last year but is now being contested by eleven lawsuits.

The project is an undertaking of Los Angeles-based Cadiz, Inc., which since the 1980s has operated a 500-acre organic grape, citrus, melon and pepper farm in the Cadiz Valley. Cadiz, Inc. arranged to have the Santa Margarita Water District, to which it is contracted to deliver a portion of the water to be extracted from the desert, to assume lead agency status for the project’s approval. Many of those opposed to the project considered that to be a conflict of interest. San Bernardino County contemplated but in March 2012 ultimately elected against challenging Orange County-based Santa Margarita’s assumption of that lead agency status on the project.

Instead on May 1, 2012 the county entered into a memorandum of understanding with that district and Cadiz, Inc. and its corporate entities, including the Fenner Valley Mutual Water Company, allowing Santa Margarita to oversee the environmental impact report for the project and conduct the public hearings related to project approval. On October 1, 2012, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors gave approval to a groundwater monitoring plan to facilitate completion of the project

The project generated eleven lawsuits in which San Bernardino County, Santa Margarita and Cadiz, Inc. have been named as defendants. Even before those lawsuits materialized, the county, on March 27, 2012, retained the San Francisco-based law firm of Downey Brand to assist county counsel in responding to any lawsuits it contemplated might be triggered by the project at what was then said to be a not-to-exceed cost of $449,322. Since that time, however, legal costs have escalated and the county has now earmarked $1,449,332 to pay for outside legal counsel to represent the county with regard to legal challenges to the project.

The lawsuits allege that the project will drain the aquifer in both the Cadiz Valley and nearby Fenner Valley, wreaking environmental harm; that the approval process for the project which allowed a water district in Orange County more than 217 miles from the project area to serve as the lead agency for the project and oversee its environmental certification violated state and federal environmental laws; that the county of San Bernardino failed to abide by its own desert groundwater management plan in approving the project; that the environmental impact report for the project was inadequate; and that approval of the project violated provisions of both the National Historic Preservation Act and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, and that the Bureau of Land Management failed to conduct a proper review of the cultural and environmental impacts of the project; that the extraction of the water will interfere with salt mining and other preexisting industrial operations in the area; and other issues.

Plaintiffs include Delaware Tetra Technologies, which operates a salt and mineral mine in the Fenner Valley, the Center for Biological Diversity, the National Audubon Society, the Sierra Club, the International Union of North America Local No. 783, the National Parks Conservation Association, the Colorado River Branch of the Archaeological Heritage Association, Santa Margarita Citizens and Ratepayers Opposing Water Nonsense, and Rodrigo Briones.

Among those inveighing against the project are U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein and former as-sistant San Bernardino County administrative officer John Goss. Feinstein has publicly stated that the project’s proposed extraction of more than one million acre-feet of water from the Eastern Mojave Desert over the 50-year life of the project will significantly exceed the United States Geological Survey’s estimate of the area’s recharge capability. Goss, who drafted the county’s desert groundwater management ordinance before it was adopted in 2002, said that ordinance was violated when the memorandum of understanding between the county, Cadiz, Inc. and the Santa Margarita Water District had been entered into before a groundwater management plan for the Cadiz project was adopted.

Now joining Feinstein and Goss are members of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe. Jay Cravath Ph.D., cultural director of the Chemehuevis, said the tribe has “deep concerns” regarding the project. “It will draw considerably more water than the aquifer can replace. It will pose a threat to the ranchers, rural communities and East Mojave landowners. It will do long-term harm to the springs of the precious Mojave National Preserve.”

Cravath went on to state, “What has not been part of the debate is the fact that those are among the ancestral lands of the Chemehuevi. We have traveled the trails for a thousand years. For us, the New York Mountains are akin to the Hebrews’ Mount of Olives; the forests of the Ship Mountains, our Cedars of Lebanon. The ancestors considered those springs not only the life-giving flow, but sacred blessings of mother earth. As this process moves forward, any decision must also weigh the sacred nature of these lands to our tribal members, and those who came before.”

Cadiz project bad policy, bad for economy

Opinion

By Dave Oeshner
San Bernardino Sun

There continues to be a lot of misinformation about the economic benefits and environmental impacts of the proposed Cadiz Valley Water Conservation, Recovery and Storage Project; and it's time to set the record straight.

As a concerned citizen of the small desert town of Amboy - with a population of 5 - and plant manager for the National Chloride Co. of America's Bristol Dry Lake operation, I am confident the Cadiz Project will kill jobs including my own, and stands to create a wide range of threats to our economy, air quality and natural resources.

I call on San Bernardino County citizens and our elected officials including the newly elected Rep. Paul Cook and our 1st District supervisor to take a strong stance in protecting our jobs and our communities by preventing this proposal from moving forward.

National Chloride Co. of America has produced liquid calcium chloride brine in its evaporative ponds on Bristol Dry Lake since the 1950s, but our roots go back to the 1930s. Our operations depend on a constant downhill flow of brine water from Fenner Gap and across Cadiz Inc. property and Bristol Dry Lake. This brine water picks up sodium and calcium minerals, essential to our production processes via our collection ditches and evaporative ponds. Products created are food-grade calcium chloride for canning, beer and cheese as well as industrial brines for construction materials, oil and gas production. Through our process sodium chloride is also produced for cattle feed, chicken feed and tanning cattle hides and road deicing.

Cadiz Inc. claims that the recharge rate of the Bristol and Fenner watersheds is 32,500 acre feet per year; but I've observed local weather patterns for almost 50 years and want to assure the public that's not the case. Last spring, we had zero rain; which was not unusual for the California desert. It doesn't take a mathematician to know that zero rain, while pumping 50,000 acre feet on average per year, puts the aquifers in the red, and stands to negatively impact our mining operation.

Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, increased irrigation on the Cadiz Farm for citrus and grapes lowered some nearby wells by 10 feet and they have never recovered. This small example is big evidence of how even limited pumping impacts this region's groundwater resources.

Cadiz also claims that draining Bristol and Cadiz dry lakes won't harm air quality. Bristol Dry Lake has a hard crust which can break up and create dust. When winter winds kick up higher than 15 miles per hour, it creates considerable dust storms. I've seen dust storms on Bristol Dry Lake diminish visibility to 10 feet. In my mind, the situation is similar to Owens Lake, which became the largest source of lung-harming pm10 pollutants in the entire United States. Deprived of water, Bristol Dry Lake will create more dust and also harm air quality.

For more than 50 years, National Chloride Co. of America has employed people, created significant revenue, provided a great tax base for San Bernardino County, and supplied a natural product that helps the economy. Our business is already stressed by paying increased governmental maintenance fees for our mining claims and this expense has increased from $17,000 to over $135,000 in just a few years. Now we stand to be ruined by the Cadiz pumping, with negative impacts to companies who purchase from us, and consumers who purchase cheese, beer, feed and construction materials.

Cadiz seems eerily reminiscent of the Old West when ranchers upstream deprived those downstream of water critical for their herds. Fast forward to present day; it's the Cadiz Valley Water Conservation, Recovery and Storage Project that stands to block water from our long-standing mining operation and run us out of business. We've been here over the long haul. The Cadiz project, on the other hand, is a newcomer that jeopardizes our investment and contribution to the economy. It should not move forward.

Dave Oeshner is plant manager of the National Chloride Co. of America.

Mojave guzzler plan calls for continued analysis

Chuck Mueller, Staff Writer
San Bernardino Sun

The top official at the Mojave National Preserve acknowledges that a plan to convert 12 former ranch wells in the park into wildlife watering troughs called guzzlers will demand continued scrutiny to make it successful.

"We will have to study and monitor the proposal over a period of years to determine the success of these artificial water sources," said Larry Whalon, the preserve's interim superintendent.

A newly released environmental assessment, prepared by the California Department of Fish and Game and the National Park Service, calls for converting the 12 wells into guzzlers.

Fish and game's proposal to rehabilitate the wells into guzzlers for mule deer and various game birds could create a dependence on artificial water among these creatures, the department notes.

In turn, this could lead to "an imbalance of the ecosystem," stemming from potential changes in wildlife populations, officials said.

"We will have to examine the positive benefits of guzzlers while looking at their negative aspects," Whalon said. "The environmental assessment is saying that we don't know all the answers. We have to recognize there can be positive and negative results."

The 43-page assessment, available for public comment through Jan. 31, includes fish and game's proposal for guzzlers along with a "no action" alternative and a third option that looks at science-based management of water resources in the 1.6 million-acre park east of Barstow.

According to Whalon, the environmental assessment looks at ways to ensure there is water for wildlife in the vast parkland. "It examines natural and artificial sources," he said. "Fish and game's proposal is compared with other alternatives (to open) a range of options and their effects on wildlife."

The assessment, he said, is not the final word. "It considers the need to obtain more information to adequately define wildlife's water needs," he explained.

"Even though guzzlers may create a dependence for wildlife on artificial water sources, we need to know that through research," Whalon said. "There are positive aspects of dependency, which may allow an increase in wildlife numbers and may allow wildlife to survive during periods of drought."

Among concerns: If the guzzlers are fed from groundwater sources, they could lower the level of groundwater. And if the guzzlers are filled by bringing in water, the groundwater could be polluted.

Fish and game officials said drought conditions over the past decade have increased the urgency to convert the wells, which were installed by cattle ranchers and used until the park service discontinued grazing leases after taking over the preserve in 1994.

Environmentalists are lukewarm over the proposal.

"Guzzlers aren't needed, since there is a lot of natural water in the preserve," said Daniel Patterson, desert ecologist with the Joshua Tree-based Center for Biological Diversity.

"Wildlife has survived for centuries in the east Mojave. It would be better for wildlife to rely on natural water sources."

Barstow environmentalist Peter Burk claims the conversion plan is designed to benefit hunters, who under law can hunt for a variety of wild game in the preserve.

"This is being done for hunters, and increases the likelihood that wildlife using the guzzlers will be targeted," Burk explained. "However, if there was no hunting, the guzzlers would benefit wildlife."

The fish and game department feels the retirement of grazing leases in the preserve over the past five years has hurt wildlife.

"It is critical to wildlife conservation to have many of these historical water sources reactivated," fish and game's proposal states.

According to the park service, six big game guzzlers were installed on several peaks in the east Mojave in the 1970s and 1980s. There also are 133 small game guzzlers in the region.

In addition, there are numerous springs and seeps in the national preserve. Depending on rainfall, these water sources number from 100 to almost 200.

Meanwhile, the Fenner Valley watershed in the east part of the preserve is recharged by rainfall at a rate of 5,000 to 70,000 acre-feet annually, according to the assessment. An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons.

With three desert ecosystems converging in the Mojave National Preserve, plants and wildlife are abundant. There are about 300 species of wildlife, including 206 species of birds and 47 species of mammals.

Hunting of some species, including bighorn sheep and game birds, adds to the imbalance within the ecosystem, fish and game officials said.

The environmental assessment is available in various public libraries, and is posted on Mojave National Preserve's Web site, www.nps.gov/moja.

Written comments on the proposal will be accepted until Jan. 31. They can be sent by mail or e-mail to Larry Whalon, Mojave National Preserve, 2701 Barstow Road, Barstow CA 92311.