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A4 Swulay, December 14, 1997 Imperial Valley Press \~(j') fDi'ca>iJiW @;pr17JJr1@!7JJ~ ' \ ,","" ,- - ,- '" : ~ , ... .."". . _. , itx)')(jiY;id~dealos'()Jar .', . !!!1::~<...;'.::-:'. ".. , m vcrall we have few strong complaims about the . terms forwarded for a final water-transfer - agreement between the Imperial Irrigation Dis- trict and the San Diego County Water AUlhori- ~ ty. The numbers and terms seem reasonable, and there " appear to be protections against excessive profiteering by people not concerned an iota about the overall well-being of the Imperial Valley. Still, we do have concerns. One is with 110 taking on full responsibility for Salton Sea environmental issues. The sea is an environmental quagmire and killing field even now, Its main source of "'fresh" Willer is agricultural runoff from the lmperial Valley. [fon-farm conservalion ! is the main source of water for transfer to San Diego, then conserving 130,000 to 200,000 acre-feet on fams here, as the agreement specilies, could make a bad situa- tion at r.he sea disastrous, both environmentally and ~s- cally. . We also are hopeful a fairly definitive water conserva- ~ tion pbn will be done before lID commits to giving '; away so much water. Saying something can be done is '. one thing. Proving it is wholly another. And we would like the public La hear more about how : water market forces could affect (he deal 10 years down ~, the line. This concept is new to the public ear and it needs to be explained fully and in layman's tenns. !. Many are concerned about how the millions and mIl- lions of dollars from the deal will be split. If there are .i profits to be made, we would hke to see some of it go [0 .', the community for projects aimed at the public well- being, Allowing farmers to keep all profits from a deal tram something as public as our water supply is neither .. fair nor wise, ~ Last but far from least, we would like to see a firm de- ; tinition of "fallowing" before the deal is inked. We are ; glad lID included provisions to prevent fallo.....ing in con- nection with the deal, but that tenn is still nebulous. We i. would like [0 see a caveat included that no one who pulls :~ farmland out of production gets 3 penny of water-transfer '~ money for that land untillhose acres are being farmed again. That is lhe best thing for the community as a whole. and the community is who the IID board should serve first. ,. We commend !.he liD board members because it ap- ': pears they listened to community input after the terms of .. the deal were made public. Sure it took some slomping and screaming, but the board did eventually take heed. We also applaud the 110 for trying to do its pan in keeping California within its annual 4.4 million acre-foot share of Colorado River water, an allotment being more ~ strictly enforced than ever.)n doing so liD not only be- comes a team player in California but a team leader. More input on this deal will be coming from the pub- lic. SinC4: it will affect everyone here for the foreseeable future, it is imperative that lID officials keep being re- ~ sponsive to the community in the months until the pact is _ .. signed. ~J;i~!f.~~\:.:\.:.~_'!'-.?:;'.' ~ :-:.' ''0..' ! . ~~!,:.. ',),"