Is THIS really the solution drought-stricken California cities have been waiting for?

What are the environmental effects of such an undertaking?

One man has decided to help Los Angeles through its struggle with the drought - and get rich doing it.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Scott Slater, a 57-year-old chief executive of Cadiz Inc, believes he can pump 814 billion gallons of water from beneath the Mojave Desert to drought-stricken cities across Southern California.

In doing so, Slater would rake in over $2 billion.

"Yes, it's quite a lot of money," Slater admitted to The Guardian. "It's worth whatever the community who wants the water is willing to pay for it to meet their demands."

Cadiz, a sustainable resource company, owns water rights across 45,000 acres of land and has been planning to redirect the water flow to LA for over ten years. Now, with the California drought, investors have been streaming in.

The Guardian reported contracts for $960 per acre-foot, which is the amount of water required to cover one acre of land in a foot of water. The current contracts equal $2.4 billion for Cadiz.

"People see this development as a private sector initiative and they have a very visceral, negative reaction to that," Slater explained.

After suffering years of drought, California has witnessed a steady increase in the price of water. Slater reports water being worth up to $2,200 per acre foot in San Diego, which has suffered the most at the hands of the drought.

To put things in perspective, Slater claims that ten years ago water was under $100 per acre foot.
"In a condition of scarcity, all water, all water that's reliable, becomes more valuable," Slater stated. 

Though the innovative idea could benefit several drought-stricken cities, the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has intervened and determined the necessary 43-mile pipeline Cadiz proposed is a breach of federal law.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, an environmentalist, has spoken against the pipeline on several occasions, saying: "I remain concerned the Cadiz project could damage the Mojave desert beyond repair and believe the BLM decision to deny the right of way is the right one. The bottom line is that right now we need more responsibility in how we use our water, not less."

David Lamfrom, director of National Parks Conservations Association's California desert and wildlife program, believes a "full examination of the Cadiz Inc Proposal will once again prove that it is unsustainable and that it will harm our desert national parks, communities, businesses, and wildlife."

Slater responded by saying his plan is environmentally "benign" and will conserve water that is currently evaporating anyway.

The Cadiz executive claims 50,000 acres per foot of water each year can be extracted, which would "otherwise evaporate, which is far more of a waste than people drinking it. None of the water we are going to take fell on the earth in the last 100 years.

"This is millennial water. It takes centuries from the water falling at the upper end of our watershed and then follow a migratory path to down where we are. Our project hypothesis is that we construct a well field here," he said, pointing at a particular location on a scale model.

"And intercept the water as it goes down the hill before it can become hypersaline and evaporates. We are substituting our wells for the natural evaporation process that sends the water into the atmosphere and wastes it."

Slater also commented on environmental concerns, saying the organizations do not have a understanding of the law:

"There are people that think water is a human right and confuse privatisation [sic] with the right to get water under economic terms. This is the United States of America and we have private property here.

"This is not a communist country. We own land, and land use is an attribute of property ownership. Food doesn't stay on the farm it was grown on. We share our food, we share our energy, we share our oil and gas.

"I can sell land to anybody. Why would I treat water differently? The use of water is owned. It's not like someone is calling up God and saying 'make it rain'. [sic] It is sold as a right, just like you sell a house."

---

The California Network is the Next Wave in delivery of information and entertainment on pop culture, social trends, lifestyle, entertainment, news, politics and economics. We are hyper-focused on one audience, YOU, the connected generation. JOIN US AS WE REDEFINE AND REVOLUTIONIZE THE EVER-CHANGING MEDIA LANDSCAPE.