On Dec. 3, the Department of Justice moved in a legal filing to reverse a federal Bureau of Land Management decision last year to approve the conversion of a 217-mile oil and gas pipeline it recently purchased to a water pipeline.
The move came as part of a lawsuit filed in March against the BLM by the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice and the Sierra Club. The lawsuit asks the federal court to overturn the December 2020 BLM decision, alleging BLM officials failed to conduct proper environmental review of the pipeline conversion plan. The groups contend that Cadiz’s plan to pump water from its aquifer will harm plant and animal life in the area.
The pipeline extends west from the Cadiz Valley in the Mojave Desert to the southern tip of the Central Valley, near the California Aqueduct. Federal approval is needed for Cadiz to convert the pipeline because it crosses 58 miles of federal land, giving the Bureau of Land Management jurisdiction.
In its legal filing, the Justice Department concurred with the environmental groups’ contention that BLM officials did not conduct a complete environmental review of the Cadiz proposal.
The Justice Department filing, as well as Cadiz’s legal response, will be the subject of a late March hearing in federal district court.
Cadiz on Dec. 6 issued a press release responding to the filing.
“Conveying water in the pipeline does not require any disturbance of the public land of any kind,” Cadiz said in the release.
