Thread: U.S. plan to line canal with concrete sparks Mexican opposit

http://www.modbee.com/state_wire/story/ ... 0745c.html

By ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press Writer
Last Updated: March 12, 2006, 10:00:55 AM PST

MEXICALI, Mexico (AP) - Despite its name, the All-American Canal has been leaking water to the Mexican side of the desert border for more than 60 years, nourishing alfalfa, onion and cotton crops that might otherwise wither.

Now the U.S. government is preparing to line the earthen channel with concrete. Mexican farmers' loss will be California's gain: Scarce water that will no longer be able to seep away instead will help flush toilets and water lawns more than 100 miles west in San Diego.

And that would affect thousands of families whose fields cover thousands of acres around Mexicali, an industrial city of 800,000 that is gobbling up farmland on its outskirts. That's because the lining would prevent the replenishment of about 100 rural wells they use, according to critics of the project.

Nazario Ortiz, who farms 100 acres about three miles inside Mexico, worries that his hardscrabble community won't survive.

"Everything comes from the canal, so everything is going to be ruined," said Ortiz, 46, who lives in a village where old pickup trucks and unleashed dogs share dirt roads. "How are people going to make a living?"

It will be hard, Ortiz says, to stop his sons - ages 22, 18 and 16 - from illegally crossing the border to join relatives in Los Angeles.

For many of its 82 miles the canal's green waters trace the U.S.-Mexico border, running through sand dunes and verdant fields to California's Imperial Valley, where it is the lifeblood for 500,000 acres of U.S. farmland.

The project to line 23 miles of the canal is slated to begin this summer and be completed in 2008. Project managers expect that the refit canal will capture enough water for 135,000 new homes, mostly in San Diego and its suburbs.

The deal is not, however, ironclad. A group of Mexicali farmers and businesses has sued in federal court in Las Vegas to stop construction; a hearing is scheduled April 24.

Nearly 3,000 acres in Mexico depend entirely on the All-American, according to the Mexicali Economic Development Council. California also relies on water the canal siphons from the Colorado River as one of the West's major water sources winds from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico.

For years, water consumption spurred by breakneck growth in Southern California prompted Western states to complain they weren't getting their share. The resolution was a water-redistribution deal that included the $225 million lining project, which will ease some of the pinch California feels from being able to gulp less water from the Colorado.

Mexico already gets 489 billion gallons of Colorado River water each year. Supporters of the lining project say that that should suffice - that the canal's seepage is water Mexico isn't entitled to get.

"We don't mind sharing, but enough is enough," said Stella Mendoza, who serves on the board of the Imperial Irrigation District, which oversees the canal and solicited construction bids last month.

Colorado River water first flowed to California's arid southeast in 1901 on the Alamo Canal, which dipped into Mexico. California farmers soon decided they needed a canal completely within the United States, leading to completion of the All-American in 1942.

Mexicans remember fishing on the Alamo in the 1970s. Now it's a bone-dry ditch - full of old tires, empty jugs, soda cans and carcasses of dogs, cats and cows - that winds around sleepy villages in the Mexicali Valley.

Farmers aren't the only Mexicans fretting about the concrete casing. Opponents say lost seepage threatens about a dozen hidden lagoons in Mexicali enjoyed by outdoor lovers and hunters.

Critics also say migrants may die crossing the canal because the concrete lining will deprive desperate swimmers of tall grasses to grab. While the canal appears calm, migrants who cram onto inflatable rafts can be swept away by a fierce undercurrent.

Nine people died in the canal last year, down from 29 in 2001, according to the Imperial County coroner's office.

The drop tracked a shift in border crossings to Arizona, and deaths could rise if more migrants return to crossing in California. To prevent such deaths, crews will build ladders 750 feet apart on both sides of the concrete lining.

While Mexican farmers protest the project most loudly, fearing that to recover lost water they'll have to dig deeper wells and pay higher electricity bills, there is surprising resistance in one California border town. The city council of Calexico, Calif., voted in January to oppose the project, echoing the opinion of some Imperial Valley farmers.

"I'm a farmer and those guys are farmers," said Tom Brundy, 49, a Calexico farmer who sends his four children to a private Catholic school in Mexicali. "I'd hate to have it happen to me."

What is likely to happen is that there will be both a simultaneous construction of the lining and an immigration crackdown.

Mexicali will benefit if their people are willing to make the right set of moves. The illegal immigrant dependent manufacturing now done in Los Angeles will have to cross the border.

A lot of farmland near Mexicali is going to be developed as new industrial parks and housing. Any farmer with land close in to the current Mexicali outskirts like Ortiz is going to benefit from urban development.

Water now used by Baja farmers should be switched over to their municipal use first. The Mexicali city sewage needs to be recyled and made available to farmers. A similar project is being done in Tijuana.

It will be hard, Ortiz says, to stop his sons - ages 22, 18 and 16 - from illegally crossing the border to join relatives in Los Angeles.

Sounds like the government is setting it up for more illegals to have a reason to sneak into our country.