WorldWide Drilling Resource

Could the Mojave Desert Help Solve California’s Water Problem? Compiled by Editorial Staff, Worldwide Drilling Resource ® An aquifer beneath the Mojave Desert may have the ability to provide water to 100,000 households in drought-stricken California for the next half-century. Whether to tap it on a commercial scale or leave it alone is a decades-old question the Trump administration has revived and the California Legislature is reconsidering. The Cadiz Valley Water Conservation, Recovery, and Storage Project aims to conserve billions of gallons of water lost annually to high salinity and evaporation in the eastern Mojave Desert and create a new, reliable water supply and groundwater storage for Southern California. Rain and snowmelt from the New York and Providence mountain ranges winds through porous ground, skirting less per- meable volcanic rock on its way. The groundwater’s natural flow takes it downhill through the aquifer system over hundreds of years. It ultimately reaches the dry lakes at the base of the watershed, where it becomes highly saline and evaporates through the surface. The aquifer is roughly the size of Rhode Island, and is located in the Fenner Basin, which is in the Cadiz Valley of California. Research indicates more than 20 million acre-feet of water is currently stored in the alluvium beneath the proj- ect area, as much as is stored in Lake Mead - the nation’s largest surface reservoir. Even more water is thought to be stored further underground in carbonate rock layers. The water rights belong to a private company - Cadiz Inc. The company wants to draw water from the ground, pump it east through a proposed 43-mile pipeline to the Colorado River Aqueduct, then sell it to water districts as far as 200 mi les away. To minimize the loss of clean groundwater to salinity and evaporation, Cadiz’s project wells will intercept the groundwater, and capture it before it reaches the highly saline brine. Once implemented, the project would conserve and recover billions of gallons of water every year for beneficial use throughout Southern California. However, there are hurdles for the project, including a new legislative effort to slow the development and sort out the sci- ence behind it. The company still needs a permit to join the aqueduct, operated by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the largest wholesale supplier in the United States. The state Department of Fish and Wildlife also recently challenged Cadiz’s environmental assessment of the project, but the company does not believe it needs the agency’s permission to move ahead - except for its plans to alter streambeds along the pipeline’s pro- posed route. The hydrology of the Mojave is at the center of the debate, specifically within the system of faults, springs, mountain ranges, and val leys. The two main questions: How quickly will the aquifer recharge with water if drawn down? And is the aquifer connected to other sources of groundwater, namely a spring which serves as an important watering ground for wandering bighorn sheep, the threatened desert tortoise, and migratory birds? If Cadiz can clear the obstacles and answer the remaining questions, the project could be up and running within a year. 31 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® NOVEMBER 2019 Open the Doorway to all the Event Photos during The Water Expo 2019 To see all the photos from this event, go to www.worldwidedrillingresource.com Feel free to download at will and print the photo(s) of your choice. Compliments of WorldWide Drilling Resource ® . Photos are copyrighted and released for personal use only - no commercial use permitted. WTR Courtesy of Cadiz, Inc. The WWDR Team would like to thank all Veterans, and their families, who have sacrificed so much so we can live free . Veterans Day - November 11, 2019