VICTORVILLE, Calif., July 18 (High Desert News Online) — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has approved a 50-year right-of-way that allows Cadiz Inc. to turn a buried pipeline across federal land in California’s High Desert into a water line.
The decision is a major step for a project that Cadiz says could move groundwater from the Mojave Desert to communities in Southern California. But it does not end the larger fight over whether the desert aquifer should be pumped at all.
What changed?
A federal right-of-way is permission to use public land for a specific purpose. In this case, the BLM approved the conversion of an existing buried pipeline so it can carry water instead of oil or gas. Cadiz said the approval lets the company begin construction and called it a “pivotal milestone.”
The agency also issued a Finding of No Significant Impact, which means it decided a full environmental impact statement was not necessary for the pipeline conversion.
How much water is at stake?
Cadiz says the project targets 1.25 million acre-feet of groundwater over 50 years. Spread across that full period, that works out to about 25,000 acre-feet a year.
An acre-foot is a standard water-planning unit. It is the amount of water needed to cover one acre of land one foot deep.
Cadiz has said the system could move about 25,000 acre-feet of water a year, while also saying it plans to pump as much as 50,000 acre-feet annually. Reporting has described the project’s pipeline length differently, so the exact mileage is not clear from the available records.
Why is the approval controversial?
The fight is not just over the pipeline. It is over the groundwater source.
In the environmental review tied to the right-of-way, the BLM limited its analysis to the pipeline crossing federal land. The agency said the pumping itself would happen on private property and would be handled through state and local oversight, which it said was outside the scope of its decision.
That left out the question opponents care about most: what the extra pumping could do to desert springs, aquifers and wildlife habitat.
Environmental advocates and Native tribes have said the project could drain desert water resources and damage fragile habitats in the Mojave. Earthjustice, which says it previously challenged the project in court, has said a federal judge ruled that the pipeline should not have been approved.
Cadiz, by contrast, says the project will help move water to communities in California and has argued for years that the project can be built and operated responsibly. Susan Kennedy, Cadiz’s chair and chief executive, said the company is excited to reach the construction stage.
What happens next?
The BLM approval is an important federal hurdle, but it is not the final word on the broader water plan. The agency’s action covers the pipeline right-of-way across federal land. It does not settle the separate debate over whether, how much, or under what conditions groundwater can be pumped from the desert basin.
For people in the High Desert and surrounding areas, that means the issue remains two linked questions: whether the pipeline can be built, and whether the desert can afford the water it is meant to carry.
