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<br />SignOnSanDiego.com > News> Special Reports -- A prominent family is torn by the battle over water <br /> <br />Page 2 of3 <br /> <br />having farmed for generations. Each <br />has a distinct role in the community. <br />How they eventually weigh in on the <br />transfer could sway local sentiment. <br />For now they remain torn. Would <br />rejection bring retribution? <br /> <br />sale could cost jobs <br />. A prominent family is torn <br />by the battle over water <br />. Valley's elders recall how <br />water made valley bloom <br />. Smaller runoffs could salt <br />the Salton Sea even more <br /> <br />San Diego ratepayers would pay <br />plenty for the water, more than $50 <br />million a year if the full 200,000 acre-feet begins to flow in 15 years. <br /> <br />That water would cover a third of the San Diego region's annual need. <br /> <br />In contrast, it represents just 6.4 percent ofthe 3.1 million acre-feet <br />Imperial County is entitled to draw from the Colorado River every year. <br /> <br />Nonetheless, to relinquish the water, the Imperial Irrigation District <br />has indicated it may have to fallow 27,000 acres, or nearly 6 percent of <br />460,000 acres farmed in the arid southeast corner of California. <br /> <br />In an interview over lunch, the Coxes pragmatically explore the issue. <br />There is gnawing uncertainty, but they refuse to assume the role of <br />doomsayers. Nor do they predict an economic revival as transfer <br />supporters do. <br /> <br />Larry Cox is the most talkative and deeply involved, given his role in <br />shaping a splinter group called the Imperial Valley Water Users <br />Association. The farmers felt their views had been ignored by the <br />Imperial Irrigation District, which counts only one grower on its five- <br />member board. <br /> <br />"We were formed to invite ourselves to be talked to," he says. But the <br />group drew fire from some in the valley who suspected the San Diego <br />County Water Authority of a divide-and-conquer strategy. <br /> <br />"We didn't know if the deal was moving backward, forward or <br />stalemated," Larry Cox explains. Maureen Stapleton, executive director <br />of the water authority, "offered to come out and meet with us. We just <br />took them up on that offer." <br /> <br />Looking at the tentative package, Larry Cox says, "San Diego got a very <br />good deal." <br /> <br />Still, he expects farmers will sign up to leave some fields unplanted to <br />save water for sale. <br /> <br />"It depends whether we can make money on it and how much trouble it <br />is," he says. <br /> <br />Larry Cox has fields in the valley and an asparagus operation in <br />Mexicali. But it wasn't water problems that drove him to abandon some <br />California operations and move dozens of jobs south of the border. It <br />was the financial drain of workers' compensation insurance and <br />minimum-wage hikes, he said. <br /> <br />Those two government mandates will cost more jobs and business than <br />any fallowing, Larry Cox says. <br /> <br />http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/reports/water/20021208-9999- farrners.htrnl <br /> <br />12/1 0/02 <br />