(IID files a legal challenge to the DCP)….It was filed the same day President Trump signed the Drought Contingency Plan into law.
The Imperial Irrigation District filed a petition in Los Angeles Superior Court alleging violations of the California Environmental Quality Act by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. The petition calls on the court to suspend approvals and actions related to the Lower Basin Drought Contingency Plan until such time that an appropriate CEQA analysis and process has been implemented. IID General Manager Henry Martinez says the logic in going forward without the IID was that the DCP couldn’t wait for the Salton Sea. He said the legal challenge is going to put that logic to the test and focus will now be where it should have been all along, at the Salton Sea. The petition alleges that MWD violated CQUA principals to enter into agreements on behalf of itself and all other California contractors, which will require MED to forgo diverting up to hundreds of thousands of acre feet of water annually from the Colorado River without considering how it will make up the shortfall. The DCP was signed March 19 by the Bureau of Reclamation and state water officials, including California, without IID participation after the IID objected, citing environmental issues posed at the Salton Sea.
