|
<br />"
<br />
<br />I,
<br />
<br />002039
<br />
<br />~, . - I.. . .', I, :,j ',' ~ 'I I . I ',' Page {;I
<br />. ' '. .~. { . " " " ',' J .- . I" ,
<br />
<br />Manager of Imperial Water District Is Fired
<br />Thursday. January 7, 1999
<br />lJy TONY I'/:'RRY, Ti",... Stuff W,it<r
<br />
<br />I;V
<br />r'A,6 hrIclRi1 ~
<br />~';~~~~.i.;<... rn
<br />
<br />Irrigalion: Aclion ref/ecls hoard's douhls aboUl historic deal 10 se{{ waler 10 San /Jiegu.
<br />
<br />SAN DI;:;:;O.-The general manager oflhe mammolh Imperiallrrigation District has been lired, another sign Ihatthe
<br />historic agreement under which San Diego would buy water from the Imperial Valley-seen as the linchpin oflhe slate's
<br />water future-oj, far from a done deal.
<br />"This thing is far from over, not by a longshot: said UC San Diego political scienee professor Stevcn Eric, an e;>(pcn
<br />on California's waler wars.
<br />Michael Clinton's lcnure at the Imperiallrrillalion District, the largest walcr u-~er in Southern California, became
<br />shaky aner the November election of two new board members who expressed doubts about key partS of the San Diego
<br />deal.
<br />An attempt in August to lire Clinton, who fonnerly worked for a wnter engineering lirm in Glendale. failed by n single
<br />Vole, He was terminated Tuesday when the board mel for its fU'SI session of the new year.
<br />Many farmers continue to worry Ihatlhe district is trying to sell 100 much waler 10 the Ihirsty ,lJ1d growing Sm Diego
<br />area and thaI farmcrs will be stuck with the ",sts of water C<lnservation,and deming up the Salton Sea, which serves lIS
<br />an agricultural swnp.
<br />There is also the rear that some farmers will let their fields go rallow in order to conserve water for sale. which could
<br />undercut Imperial County's billion.dollar agricultural ec.onomy.
<br />Water issues continue to roil the political landscape oithe Imperial Valley, where ~OO.()()O acres of farmland arc
<br />dependent on irrigation, Climon, 55, a civil engineer, became thi: personificalion oflbe continuing controversy,
<br />"( thinK his depanure will be a good Ihing," said Carson Kalin. whose family farm has 2,500 acres under cultivation,
<br />"lie did what he was hired to do..put Q deallogelher--but many of his open-ended stalements, like the idea we can
<br />conse.....e 500,000 acrc.feet of water, hurt us,"
<br />Through persis~ncc. and some degree ofslCalth. Clinton helped shape a deal to sell the San Diego County Water
<br />Authority as much as 300.000 acre. feel of walet' a year-less than a lOth of the Imperial Vallcy's allocation from the
<br />Colorado River,
<br />The deal was reached in August a!\cr the Legislature allocated $235 million to line canals and build underground
<br />slorage facilities, over",ming two major obstacles 10 the: agreement
<br />Somc cxpect the new irrigation district board to allemptto rcopen negotiations over the agreement. which could prove
<br />a lengthy and legally tricky etTon becausc it would involve not just the Sm Dicgo County Water Authority bul also other
<br />parlies, including the Legislature,
<br />There arc other issucs thaI could delay or bloc!: the deal: . dispute between the irrigation district and the Coachella
<br />Valley Water Districl. and ",mplex negotiations among sever.1 Slates over the storage ofwaler in Nevada's Lake Mcad,
<br />the gimt reservoir along the Colorado River.
<br />Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has called the water deal cssentialto thc Slale's erron to live within its righlful wBter
<br />allocation from the Colorado. He has threatened to curtail the practice of allowing California to receive surplus water
<br />from the river.
<br />Clinton, highly l:nowlcdgeBblc but somewhat aloor, is the second oflhe stale's major water bosses to leave in recent
<br />months. as the industry struggles in Ihe throes offundllIl'lemaJ change. John Wodraska. general manager of the
<br />Metropolitan Water District of South em California, resigned in September tojoin a Houston-bnsed waler business,
<br />Clinton lingered members of the Imperial COIJnty Board of Supervisors. the local grand jury, the editorial pa~e of Ule
<br />Imperial Valley Press and a faction of the farming ",mmunity,
<br />Among other things, Clinton was criticized for not having publicly disclosed that his Glendale firm once did work for
<br />the Bass brothers. ule Texas billionaires who in the 1990s began buying Imperial Valle)' land ~nd trying to innuence
<br />local woter policy with lIll eye to....ard profiting by letting the land go fallow and selling the WateL
<br />In a statemcnt released latc Tuesday after he WlIS ftred, Clinton said that when he was hired in 19')5, Southern
<br />Co1iiiornia "was in deniJI" and bclien:d that it couJd ronLinuc using morc than its share or Colorado Ril'cr ....aleL He said
<br />lhe di~lnCl faced two choices: i\rr""gc a sales agreement or lct urban areas take lhc Impel ial V"Ilc:y', wattor b)' political
<br />muscle.
<br />
<br />.. The PointCast Network'.
<br />e.
<br />
|