LOS ANGELES, CA, May 6, 2011 -- Jurupa Community Services District has entered into an Option Agreement with Cadiz for conserved water and carry-over storage capacity from its Cadiz Valley Water Conservation, Recovery and Storage Project.
The Cadiz Valley Water Conservation, Recovery and Storage Project is designed to capture and conserve thousands of acre-feet of native groundwater currently being lost to evaporation through an aquifer system beneath Cadiz's property in eastern San Bernardino County, California. By implementing established groundwater management practices, the Project will create a new, sustainable annual water supply for Project participants. In addition, the Project offers storage capacity that can be used by participants to carry-over -- or "bank" -- annual supplies, without the high rates of evaporative loss suffered by local surface reservoirs. Project facilities will be built on privately-owned land to safeguard nearby federal lands and pristine desert.
JCSD serves customers in parts of eastern Riverside County and is the fifth water provider to agree to participate in the Project. Other participants include Santa Margarita Water District, Three Valleys Municipal Water District, Golden State Water Company and Suburban Water Systems. With the addition of JCSD, over 70% of the water to be conserved annually by the Project is now under option.
Under the agreement, JCSD will have the right to acquire a firm, annual supply of 5,000 acre-feet of water and will also have the option to acquire storage capacity in the Project to manage this new supply in complement with its other water resources. These rights will be exercisable upon completion of the Project's California Environmental Quality Act ("CEQA") review, which is currently underway. JCSD has committed funds to the CEQA review process and will share costs with the other Project participants and Cadiz.
Cadiz is in discussions with additional water providers that are interested in acquiring rights to the remaining annual supply conserved by the Project and is also exploring opportunities with additional parties related to the imported storage component of the Project.
###
