U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein … who died last month at age 90 [helped] make extraordinary places throughout the Mojave Desert off-limits to development. Three national parks and three national monuments stretching over 12 million acres of inland Southern California bear witness to her 30 years of work to preserve these rugged landscapes from plunder. … But as any park ranger or biologist would caution, park designation is not the ultimate safeguard. The underground water that replenishes the pools at Big Morongo feeds other springs in the Mojave. For more than 30 years, a major Mojave aquifer had been targeted for pumping and piping out by a private company, Cadiz Inc. It sought to drain the groundwater and sell it off for profit. Standing in their way implacably was Feinstein …
-Written by Hans Johnson, president of Progressive Victory. He helped pass California laws to ban throwaway plastic bags and to protect desert water.​