Tribes sue Interior department over controversial groundwater pumping project
A plan to pump billions of gallons of groundwater from under the Mojave National National Monument is back in court – this time led by two tribes. The plan was blocked by a federal court in 2022 but last month the Bureau of Land Management approved a new right-of-way grant for Cadiz Inc. to begin converting a natural gas pipeline to transport the water from an aquifer system located within the monument. Now the Fort Mojave and Chemehuevi Indian Tribes have taken the plan back to the court. “This is the Mojave Desert, and we are the Mojave people, the caretakers of this land, water and wildlife since time immemorial” … said Fort Mojave Chairman Timothy Williams in a statement. “Their plan to pump and sell 25 times more groundwater each year than the aquifer can replenish would desecrate our traditional territories and any community sold this water would be left with an unreliable, unsustainable supply.”
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