Thread: Canal lining injunction dismissed

Canal lining injunction dismissed

Last modified Monday, April 9, 2007 12:07 PM PDT


By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer

SAN FRANCISCO -- A long-discussed Imperial Valley canal lining project expected to bring billions of gallons of water a year to San Diego County for the next century may finally get underway as the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed an environmental challenge.

All work on the $353.6 million, 23-mile long project was ordered stopped by the same Ninth Circuit Court in August, which issued an injunction because of an environmental challenge raised by Mexican businesses, farmers and California environmental groups.

However, in a ruling dated Friday but released Monday morning, the court dismissed the injunction.


The judges ruled that the environmental challenges were rendered legally "moot" -- meaning the issue no longer needed to be debated by the courts -- because Congress passed a law in December saying the canal-lining should move forward "without delay" despite the environmental objections.

The project, which has been discussed for nearly 20 years, calls for building a concrete-lined replacement for a 23-mile stretch of Imperial Valley's earth-lined All American canal.

The canal lining would conserve water by preventing it from seeping through the canal bed. The canal does not directly deliver water to San Diego County. But the water that officials say the lining would conserve would be shipped via Metropolitan Water District pipelines to San Diego County residents for 110 years.

The canal lining, along with a similar project already completed in Coachella Valley, is expected to deliver enough water to sustain 154,000 households a year.

Water Authority officials had hoped to begin construction in August, but was delayed by the injunction.

Those officials said they hoped, if the court dismissed the injunction, to begin construction in June.

Because of the delays, Water Authority officials said the earliest the canal-lining water could begin to arrive in San Diego County would be 2009.



http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/04 ... 4_9_07.txt

We knew this was coming. Wonder if their friend, Jorge, will come to the rescue. From what I understand, those farmers have been benefiting from that leaky canal for years. Did they pay for the water? I don't think so.
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April 10, 2007, 12:18PM
Mexico Rejects U.S. Border-Canal Ruling


© 2007 The Associated Press



MEXICO CITY — Mexico has rejected a court ruling allowing the U.S. government to line a border canal with concrete to prevent leakage, saying the project will harm the environment and Mexican farmers.

"The government is reviewing, in contact with parties potentially affected by the ruling, the legal options available" for challenging the project further, the Foreign Relations and Environment departments said in a statement Monday.

At stake is the lining of the All-American Canal to save enough water to meet the needs of more than 500,000 homes. That amount of water currently seeps out of the canal.

Environmental and farming groups say the $200 million project would dry up tens of thousands of acres of farmland in Mexico's Mexicali Valley and threaten migratory birds by eliminating wetlands. That in turn, they say, could cause job losses and other economic problems on both sides of the border.

Canal supporters argue the upgrade would help supply fast-growing San Diego county with water.

On Friday a U.S. federal appeals court lifted an injunction granted in response to a suit by opponents, and ruled that a law signed last year by President Bush orders the project to be started without delay. Further appeals are possible.

The issue is a sensitive one in Mexico, and the government statement noted that Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon discussed it last month during a meeting in Merida.

The 80-mile earthen canal, fed by the Colorado River, was completed in 1942. While it runs entirely on the U.S. side, its seepage feeds crops along both sides of the border east of San Diego, California.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4702144.html