Two environmental advocacy organizations and two Native American tribes on Tuesday filed separate lawsuits to vacate the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s approval of the use of a decommissioned oil and gap pipeline across protected federal public land in the Mojave Desert for a controversial water project. The Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club said in their complaint filed in Los Angeles that the bureau’s decision will have a devastating impact on the fragile desert environment. Cadiz Inc. acquired the pipeline from El Paso Natural Gas in 2011 and intends the use it forits Mojave Groundwater Bank, a project to pump water from an underground aquifer in the Mojave Desert to the company’s customers west of the desert along the California coast.

Related:

• Bloomberg Law: Groups renew challenge to California’s Cadiz water project
• Center for Biological Diversity: News release: Lawsuit challenges Trump administration’s latest attempt to drain Mojave Desert
• National Parks Conservation Association: News release: Tribal nations and conservation groups sue to protect Mojave Desert water from Cadiz project