SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ A controversial Mojave Desert water project, which has emerged as a major environmental flashpoint between California and the Trump administration, cannot go forward without approval by the State Lands Commission under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday.
The restriction places a major obstacle to Cadiz Inc.'s long-standing plans to pump desert groundwater and sell it to urban Southern California.
Newsom said he signed the bill to ensure the Mojave Desert's fragile ecosystem is protected.
"Water has flowed underneath the Mojave for thousands of years, sustaining the Native Americans, bighorn sheep, the threatened desert tortoise and a variety of other plant and animal life that have made the Mojave Desert their home," the governor said in a statement.
The governor added that the new law would create an "independent scientific analysis" that would determine if "any major water transfer project in the Mojave will unreasonably affect the environment."
The project by Cadiz has been the subject of a two-decades-long political drama. It was blocked by the Obama administration, then revived under President Donald Trump.
The law signed by Newsom prohibits Cadiz, one of the largest private landowners near the Mojave National Preserve, from transferring water from a groundwater basin near a national preserve, national park or other state and federal wilderness areas unless state lands officials determine it would have no adverse effect on groundwater resources, habitat and natural resources.
"We're thrilled that Gov. Newsom and the state are committed to protecting the fragile Mojave Desert from unfettered corporate greed," Ileene Anderson, senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a written statement. "Additional review is crucial because the Cadiz water-privatization scheme is not sustainable. This massive project will suck the desert dry so developers can cash in."
Sen. Richard Roth, a Democrat and the author of the legislation, SB 307, said serious concerns have been raised about the amount of ground water that Cadiz proposed pumping from the desert, which may be more than nature can replenish. "We can't afford to get this wrong," Roth said in a statement. "It is critical to allow independent scientists to review the scientific evidence in order to resolve the conflict."
The State Lands Commission is required to review any proposed water transfer in consultation with the state departments of Fish and Wildlife and Water Resources.
Cadiz has proposed pumping enough groundwater from beneath its private Mojave Desert lands to supply 100,000 homes a year.
Environmental and public land advocates have warned that the project would dry up springs that are vital to desert wildlife. Federal environmental officials said Cadiz had overstated the recharge rate of the desert aquifer.
Cadiz had rejected both criticisms.
After the new law was approved by state lawmakers July 11, Cadiz released a statement saying the project's opponents "parlayed their considerable political influence to establish a new state review in a new forum after failing to succeed in all other venues."
Cadiz emphasized that an earlier version of the water project received approval from the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2002 and that it underwent a decade of reviews by state agencies, San Bernardino County and the courts.
"As our governor has repeatedly emphasized, California continues to suffer from chronic water supply and affordable housing shortages. These problems are not unrelated. Solutions to these two critical problems depend on infrastructure improvements that are opposed at every turn," the company said in its statement. The new law "will make solutions even tougher to achieve."
Cadiz was founded by Keith Brackpool, an investor with extensive political connections in Sacramento and Los Angeles.
The company is now headed by Scott Slater, a California water law expert who is part of the influential Colorado law firm of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, which previously employed David Bernhardt, now U.S. secretary of the Interior. The law firm's ties to the Trump administration have come under scrutiny, as has its financial stake in the project.
In a 2016 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Brownstein was slated to receive lucrative stock shares if Cadiz started selling water. The company's stock price has recently fallen, after California lawmakers approved the bill Newsom signed Wednesday.
Cadiz and Brackpool, a longtime friend of former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, together contributed nearly $85,000 to Villaraigosa's unsuccessful 2018 gubernatorial campaign. The company also donated to former Govs. Gray Davis and Jerry Brown, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and a long list of California lawmakers and politicians.
Newsom also received political donations from Cadiz while he served as California's lieutenant governor.
However, Newsom and Brown had supported previous legislation that would have imposed similar state environmental restrictions on the Cadiz project.
In June, a federal judge struck down Trump administration decisions that cleared the way for Cadiz to build a water pipeline across public land in the California desert. Cadiz has said the administration could easily remedy the court's concerns.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has been one of the project's staunchest opponents. The senator played an instrumental role in imposing federal protections on many of the desert lands surrounding the Cadiz project.
Feinstein, in a 2017 opinion column in the Los Angeles Times, argued that the project would drain vital desert aquifers and threaten the region's unique and pristine wildlife, including tortoises and bighorn sheep, wildflower blooms and Joshua trees.
"The Cadiz project is not just a bad investment. It could destroy the Mojave Desert," Feinstein said.
