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<br />..:':Sa...rue l....me~ urawn uver \IV alt:'I 1\.Jg..rI~ <br /> <br />nrrp:/lWWW.lamneS.COmlHUMlo/NloW::./A::.loL j JUN/tUUUUU3 I~D.ntml <br /> <br />I News ~ ] Site Index ~ <br />. ~r~Ec."t!~~~~?] <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Go ahead. Get technical with us. <br /> <br />Wednesday, January 13, 1999 <br /> <br />Battle Lines Drawn Over Water Rights <br />· Growth: Metropolitan district's decision to seek reconsideration of <br />Colorado River split is met with legal saber-rattling by farm interests. <br />By TONY PERRY, Times Staff Writer <br /> <br />ADVERTISEMENT <br /> <br />. <br /> <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />lof1 <br /> <br />on the first shot of what could become an urban vs. rural <br />water war, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern <br />California voted Tuesday to ask Interior Secretary Broce <br />Babbitt to reconsider the 1931 agreement that gives farmers the <br />lion's share of the Colorado River. <br />The Imperial Irrigation District, the state's largest user of <br />Colorado River water, immediately vowed to wage a court <br />battle to block any MWD-backed change in the agreement--a <br />battle that could tie up California's water planning for years. <br />"Lawyers and others who counsel Metropolitan to find <br />additional water in the courtroom or in the [political] hearing <br />room are wiIling to gamble the Southern California economy <br />on a water-use litigation lottery," Broce Kuhn, president of the <br />Imperial Irrigation District's board of directors, wrote to the <br />MWD's board chairman. <br />Kuhn's ire was raised by a statement of principles adopted <br />by the MWD's board of directors that criticizes the Department <br />oflnterior for giving "inadequate attention to its obligation" to <br />see that Colorado River water is distributed "in the manner that <br />best meets the public need." <br />In water-speak, that means MWD would like to see a <br />change in the formula that gives approximately 75% of <br />California's annual share of the Colorado River to the Imperial <br />Irrigation District and three smaller agricultural districts, which <br />distribute it to farmers in the Imperial, Palo Verde and <br />Coachella valleys and in the Yuma, Ariz., area. Most of the rest <br />goes to MWD, but is considered inadequate for the region's <br />growing needs. <br />Each year the MWD must wait for the secretary of the <br />interior to determine whether there is surplus water in the <br />Colorado River that the MWD can buy and distribute to its <br />member agencies, which serve 16 miIlion people in six <br />Southern California counties. <br />The annual surplus determination is both nerve-racking to <br />the MWD--which is left to wonder each year whether Southern <br />California wiIl receive enough water--and fraught with political <br />controversy. Other states that depend on the Colorado River are <br />increasingly uneasy with California receiving such surpluses. <br />"We just can't go on another six, seven, eight years with this <br />kind of uncertainty on the Colorado River," said Henry <br />Barbosa, vice chairman of the MWD board. "This is not a <br /> <br />1/13/998:01 AM <br />