Posted on 06/02/2002 4:01:00 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
SACRAMENTO -- A British-born water mogul who has directed more than $250,000 to Gov. Gray Davis is drawing conflict of interest complaints as he pushes a massive Southern California water project that could earn his company half a billion dollars over 50 years.
Davis has turned to Keith Brackpool repeatedly for advice on water issues, and the governor's aides have asked him to weigh in on key policymaking sessions, even when Brackpool's companies stood to gain.
An early Davis supporter, Brackpool is a prominent example of the entrepreneurs who have contributed heavily to Davis and been rewarded with high-profile appointments and other assistance.
Brackpool's Cadiz Inc. is currently shepherding his biggest project through local and federal bureaucracies -- a plan to pump diverted Colorado River water into an aquifer under the Mojave Desert to serve nearly 17 million people in Southern California. Because the project would also involve selling the existing groundwater supply, it is opposed by some environmentalists.
Davis and Brackpool, through their aides, denied Brackpool's money and access to the governor unduly influenced water decisions -- for instance, Davis has no direct authority over the Cadiz project.
"He's been a longtime supporter of the governor, and beyond that you guys are going to say what you're going to say," said Davis campaign spokesman Roger Salazar.
Cadiz spokeswoman Wendy Mitchell said "the facts don't back up that we've benefitted -- none of our interests have benefitted."
However, others say Davis has been overly reliant on Brackpool.
"I think it's more than questionable, it's an inappropriate use of private interest to influence our public decisions. That shouldn't happen," said Thomas Graff, California regional director for Environmental Defense.
Brackpool led a group that spent $2 million promoting a $1.9 billion water bond package approved by voters in 2000. And when it came time to distribute the money, he consulted with a top Davis aide to delay a construction project that could have affected a Cadiz subsidiary.
The Department of Water Resources staff and a review committee had already recommended fully funding a nearly $2 million water banking grant to the North Kern Water Storage District in Kern County, also home to Bakersfield-based Cadiz subsidiary Sun World International Inc., when department secretary Mary Nichols called Brackpool for his input.
Sun World and other landowners worried the North Kern project would not divert enough water to feed the for-profit water banking projects they had in mind, said North Kern district engineer-manager Dana Munn.
Mitchell disputed Munn's account, saying Brackpool, Sun World's local representative, and other land owners raised concerns about the project even though they stood to benefit from it.
Also denied last year was a $1.4 million project proposed by the United Water Conservation District to recharge water aquifers that serve 300,000 people between Oxnard and Santa Paula.
"It would have looked bad to kill just the one project, so they killed all construction funds," alleged Dana Wisehart, that district's general manager.
"I felt it was a huge conflict of interest for the governor to have this man, who has a huge groundwater banking project himself, to be giving advice to him or anyone else on water banking grants," Wisehart added.
Nichols took Brackpool's advice to wait a year and consider a wider selection of construction-ready projects, said Resources Agency spokesman Stanley Young. He said she didn't consider that Brackpool might have a conflict of interest.
"The secretary valued his advice, and since he was an important part of putting the water bond together, as a representative of the water community," said Young, adding that "other sources" also were recommending a delay.
As for Cadiz, "We didn't make any calls" -- literally or figuratively, said Mitchell. The phone call came from Nichols, and it was Nichols who made the decision on funding, she said.
Brackpool has been stirring a mix of water, money and political influence for years.
He is a founder, president and chief executive officer of Cadiz, which contributed $133,000 to Davis's first gubernatorial campaign and $128,605 since then, campaign records show.
He's loaned his company's airplane to the governor and Nichols, and hosted fund-raisers at the country club he owns in Manhattan Beach.
When Davis was elected governor in 1998, he named Brackpool co-chairman of his transition team committee on agriculture and water issues. Davis later appointed Brackpool to his Commission on Building for the 21st Century, alongside other donors like developer Eli Broad ($115,000 to Davis in 2000-01), hotel and casino builder Ronald Tutor ($177,000) and investor Ron Burkle ($243,000).
The commission's final report contained a recommendation -- suggested by a Davis aide, according to meeting minutes -- that federal agencies delegate environmental protection to California, and that the state's Environmental Quality Act be "streamlined" to speed water projects.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management most recently has delayed Cadiz' project by taking longer than expected to consider the environmental impact of drawing groundwater from under the Mojave desert.
Cadiz' partner is the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, a quasi-governmental agency that sells water to companies serving Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.
District spokesman Adan Ortega said the water board is awaiting the BLM's decision and hopes to vote on the project this summer.
While water banking projects qualify for funding under the terms of the bond, Cadiz and the water district are paying the $150 million construction costs without seeking bond money, Ortega said.
Brackpool's co-chair, Michael Paparian, formerly of the Sierra Club and now on the California Integrated Waste Management Board, said "it didn't seem like he was pushing a personal agenda" on the commission.
Brackpool's company has benefited in other ways from his political connections and contributions to prominent Democrats including Hillary and Bill Clinton.
Brackpool accompanied Davis on a 1999 trade mission to the Middle East, after securing a $300 million investment from a Saudi prince for a Sun World project to divert Nile River water for irrigation.
In March, Cadiz named former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to head water development projects in the Middle East. Babbitt's agency had been involved in negotiations over CalFed -- a joint federal-state effort to restore the fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and provide a reliable supply of water for farmers, nature and municipal water users, in which Brackpool participated -- and over California's overuse of Colorado River water, which is helping prompt interest in Cadiz' water banking project.
"It certainly looks bad after the fact that Brackpool and Babbitt negotiated the plan, and then Babbitt went to work for Brackpool," Graff said.
Despite repeated requests, Brackpool wasn't available to comment personally because he has been in the Middle East on business, said Cadiz spokeswoman Mitchell.
Mark Watton, formerly on the Metropolitan Water District's board, had worried that Cadiz' political connections would prompt the board to accept the Santa Monica-based firm's proposal too hastily.
"We all knew the governor was flying around in Cadiz' plane and all those things," Watton said.
"I never thought Brackpool or Cadiz would do anything on the sly, because they had too much to lose. I was more concerned they would dazzle the staff and then we'd have an Oracle deal," he said, referring to the Davis administration's controversy over a $95 million, no-bid computer software contract.
Brackpool and his staff lobbied hard but fairly, said Watton, adding that the district did its homework to make sure the Cadiz project will, "pardon the pun, hold water."
Amazing that the enviro whackos lie and worry about a slimey sucker fish and haven't been screaming about this Water Baron Brackpool on a 24/7 basis.
What is the Cadiz Groundwater Storage and Dry-Year Supply Program?
This is a proposed program between the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and Cadiz Inc., a publicly traded agricultural company that has branched out into water development. If approved, the project is one of a few dry-year storage programs to protect Southern California from future reductions in Colorado River water supplies. The proposed project is located in the Mojave Desert, about 20 miles south of Interstate 40, roughly halfway between Needles and Ludlow in eastern San Bernardino County.
The project would begin near MWD's Iron Mountain Pumping Plant along the Colorado River Aqueduct. As proposed, Metropolitan will divert some of its Colorado River water north through an approximate 35-mile pipeline into a 390-acre man-made earthen basin. The goal is to build a nest egg of up to 1 million acre-feet of Colorado River water and withdraw up to 150,000 acre-feet (enough to support 300,000 households) a year when needed in dry years.
In addition to storing its own Colorado River water, Metropolitan would purchase and withdraw native groundwater, subject to an extensive monitoring and management plan designed to modify the program if it were shown to be impacting the environment. In addition to selling water to Metropolitan, Cadiz also could sell to third parties as part of the 50-year contract.
The 50-year program will improve Southern California's water supply reliability in two ways:
• Storage - Store Colorado River water to better manage available wet-year supplies to meet dry-year needs.
• Supply - Provide a new dry-year supply from the high-quality groundwater underlying the Cadiz property.
The Cadiz Program is designed to take wet-year water available on the Colorado River and deliver it to the Cadiz property for storage in the underlying aquifer system. Up to one million acre-feet of surplus Colorado River water will be stored at any one time. During dry years, this water will be withdrawn from storage and delivered to Metropolitan's service area. In addition, a portion of the existing groundwater that normally evaporates from adjacent dry lakes will also be made available to Metropolitan during dry years. Approximately one to two million acre-feet of high-quality groundwater will be provided to Metropolitan over the 50-year term of the agreement. The actual amount of water to be stored and transferred will be governed by the restrictions and conditions of a Groundwater Monitoring and Management Plan, which is designed to protect surrounding natural resources.
Cadiz owns more than 27,000 acres in the Cadiz and Fenner valleys in eastern San Bernardino County, approximately 35 miles north of Metropolitan's Colorado River Aqueduct. The Program's capital facilities will be located entirely on Cadiz property. Studies by independent experts have determined that the Program site overlies an aquifer system, which is ideally suited for underground water storage. The watershed that supplies water to the Program site encompasses approximately 1,300 square miles, or an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. The aquifer system contains approximately 20 million acre-feet of high-quality groundwater, which receives replenishment naturally through rainfall each year. An acre-foot of water contains approximately 326,000 gallons and is sufficient to meet the needs of two Southern California families for a year.
Critics Raising Concerns About Cadiz Water Project
OR
Because those who are responsible for putting him there are of the exact same ilk. Davis is a snake for sure but the state legislature is overwhelmingly Democrat and the few Repubs are basically powerless. I predict Davis will be re-elected by a huge margin. Simon doesn't impress me - I don't see the fight in him and Davis has more $ than Simon could ever wish for. California is a loss.
This is from the MWD site and is Titled
The Source of your water.
Thanks to Mike Mecke for passing this along, Ric Jensen === "145K ac/ft to LA, groundwater.............. December 26, 2000 Single-Page Format Private Sector May Sell Water to Southern California Agency By JAMES STERNGOLD CADIZ, Calif. - In an agreement that would introduce a new level of market influence over the management of water in Southern California, the government agency that supplies roughly 17 million people in the Los Angeles area plans to buy large volumes of privately owned water for the first time. The decision, which effectively relaxes the tight government controls that have always prevailed over this scarce and basic resource, comes after a shift in federal policy and projected shortages of water in the years ahead. After years of planning and disputes, the Metropolitan Water District is within weeks of concluding its first contract to buy large volumes from one of the state's largest farming companies, Cadiz Inc. Under the terms of the nearly concluded contract, officials on both sides say, Cadiz Inc. (pronounced KAY-deez) will provide the agency each year with as much as 47 trillion gallons (or in the industry measure, 145,000 acre-feet of water). There have been many issues to overcome in this unusual deal - already some environmentalists are threatening litigation - but none are greater than the psychological hurdle of whether the private sector should be allowed to play such a large role in the management of this critical commodity. About all the experts agree on is that the impact will be large, and that in time there are likely to be more private players and less government control. "No question, this is introducing a whole new era," said Norris Hundley, a professor emeritus of history at the University of California at Los Angeles and author of "The Great Thirst: Californians and Water, 1770's-1990's." "The marketing of water is really new and will have a big impact. We're just seeing the tip of the iceberg of what's possible." The proposed deal comes at a time when Californians are already questioning the role of market forces in the delivery of basic resources. An unprecedented spike in power and natural gas prices, plus critical power shortages, have led many to wonder if the state's experiment in energy deregulation was such a wise move. But even as some state officials call for more government controls on energy, Southern California's water planners feel they have no choice but to head down the road to a freer market to overcome what they describe as a sort of slow-motion supply crisis that will play out over the next two decades. Federal government and court decisions have reduced how much water California will be able to take from the Colorado River. The Met, as the government agency is known, has changed only reluctantly, and had to take on a new general manager to carry out the new ideas, but it has now embraced the market-oriented approach. "For years, the Met assumed the world would be a certain way," said Ronald Gastelum, the new manager. "There was a certain arrogance. After the first court decisions, people were saying, `Well, at least we have the Colorado River surpluses.' Then those got taken away. What we're now saying is: `O.K., that's reality. Let's make the best business deal.' " Cadiz is offering that deal, and it has almost no competition because it is the only known source of such large volumes so close to the region. That fact heartens the British entrepreneur who runs the company, Keith Brackpool. "The one thing I don't have to worry about when I wake up in the morning is that someone else has just solved California's water problem," Mr. Brackpool said. "If you do the math, the price of our water just soars." The water would be pumped from an aquifer deep under the Mojave Desert at this sun-blasted old rail stop about 200 miles east of Los Angeles, where Cadiz operates a farm of scientifically managed, laser-straight rows of bushy lemon and orange trees and grapevines. The math is particularly cheering for Cadiz, which has been losing substantial amounts of money every year. It lost $8.6 million on $115 million in revenues in 1999, and is expected to be in the red again this year. The deal with the Met could make a gold mine of this site. Achieving that will require tough negotiations and political savvy, something Cadiz has worked hard at. Mr. Brackpool was a large contributor to Gov. Gray Davis's election campaign, and has been appointed by the governor to serve on several advisory boards related to natural resources and growth. In addition, the company named to its board last year Tony Coelho, formerly a powerful Democratic congressman and a former chairman of Vice President Al Gore's presidential campaign. "I don't think anybody knows the value of that water, that's how valuable it is," said Mr. Coelho, whose district was the agricultural Central Valley of California. "Let me just be blunt," he added. "Careers are made and lost in water politics, and that will be true here." Los Angeles, which lies in an arid coastal region, has always had growth ambitions far exceeding its meager indigenous water supply. The city pipes its water in from the Owens Valley in Northern California. The rest of Los Angeles County and the surrounding counties rely on the Met, which transports federal allocations of Colorado River water through an aqueduct that cuts across the desert 35 miles south of here. The law now grants California 4.4 million acre-feet of water a year, but it has been taking about 5.3 million acre-feet, much of that at the expense of Arizona and Nevada. That will not be possible for too many more years. As a result of the court decisions and a directive from the Interior Department, California and the Met will have to cut back to the official allotment before 2020. Mr. Gastelum, the district's new manager, took over last year with a mandate to ease the transfer of water, and to push much harder on plans to save it - though conservation and recycling have already reduced needs by some 700,000 acre- feet a year over the last decade. The Met's arrangement with Cadiz has two components. Under the first, surplus water would be diverted from the Met aqueduct in wet years and transferred through a pipeline to the Cadiz property for storage. The water would be sprinkled into shallow spreading ponds, where it would seep slowly underground. Even environmentalists embrace this part of the plan, because water storage below ground in the sandy, porous soil here is considered less damaging to the surroundings than reservoirs. And in dry years, the stored water would be pumped back up. The Met would pay Cadiz about $90 for each acre-foot of water stored and then returned. Under the second, more hotly disputed part of the plan, Cadiz would sell as needed to the Met up to 145,000 acre-feet a year of water pumped up from an existing aquifer deep under the desert here. The fee would initially be about $230 an acre-foot and would rise over the years. Once the final deal has been negotiated and the Met and Cadiz boards have approved it, the two will face perhaps the most critical hurdle. An environmental impact statement would have to be approved by the federal Bureau of Land Management. Even if it is approved, environmental groups have vowed to fight in court. Environmentalists contend that the existing underground water would be pumped out faster than it could be replenished. If that happens, they argue, springs in the region may dry up, killing wildlife like bighorn sheep and coyotes. They also fear that the briny water just below two huge dry lake beds in the area might sink, loosening the surface dust. Winds could whip that up, creating major pollution problems, which is precisely what has happened in the Owens Valley. "The problems this is going to create are going to be very expensive to fix, more expensive than any benefits," said Elden Hughes, a regional director of the Sierra Club. The Met and Cadiz have proposed a system of monitoring wells to ensure that the water table does not drop sharply, but critics warn that the demands from the cities would overwhelm prudent management. Mr. Gastelum of the Met, however, argues that the agency has to move forward. "Unfortunately," he said, "we don't have the luxury of lining up a bunch of projects and being able to just choose which one we want. There's just one source of new water here. Cadiz is not a panacea. It's a piece of the puzzle."Texas WaterNet | WaterTalk | Archive | Jan 2001 | Jan 3, article 3
However, Grampa Dave to 30 kids today is worn out and heading to bed to join his really worn out wife, who had one or two of these 30 kids in her arms from 11 am something to 5:30 pm. (2 were our grandkids, we were adopted by the other 28).
Good night and keep up the great work on the water robbers/barons.
The destruction of a large part of California's water supply would be a huge economic disaster for the entire nation. Even if there were no loss of life, it would be necessary for millions to relocate to other states.
Governor Davis is just the type of dim-bulb Rat who can be duped into letting down his guard, simply by the application of a few well-placed checks.
However your reply/post needs to be reposted:
Are any Southlanders concerned that the Egyptians and the Saudis are wanting to "help" with their water supply?
How many Saudis were involved directly in 9/11 by being on those planes, killing flight attendants and flight crew and then flying those planes in the WTC and Pentagon. Thank God the Lets Roll heroes stopped the other flight.
Herr Davis and his band of petty facists would have zero problem selling out to Saudis who hate America. The enviral whackos would be overjoyed if about 20 million Southlanders had to be relocated like Miss Marple points out.
This is a very chilling scenario. Tom Clancy couldn't come up with a better plot than the reality of what is happening with the potential water supply of millions of South Landers.
One of these days we will probably be able to see a money trail from the Opecker Princes to the enviral groups. Who then help their poster boys like Davis get elected with laundered funds and their state wide green eyed voting cultts.
Last but not least, each day out here in Kali we are being exposed to the reality of Davis and bribes to re elect him. I'm sure that he went in premature orgasism when he shook the hand of this Rich Opecker Prince, just dreaming about the money the Opecker Princes could donate to him. They could help me to become another Jimmy Carter. A president financed and paid for by the Opecker Princes.
Davis is as amoral as a man can be. There is nothing that he would not do to be re elected or elected to a higher post than governor.
This, and the 50 other stories where Davis donors benefited within days of giving money to Davis.
Davis doesn't care. He's been in the public arena his entire life and thinks he's some sort of demi-god or monarch. He thinks he knows what's best for everyone, and no one has the right to criticize him. Davis HAS to go.
California leads the country in agricultural production, and water is the life-giving source of our agricultural success. With the huge costs of energy, the enviro-wackos and excessive government regulation, major damage to our water supply would decimate our entire agricultural economy. I don't think anyone in Los Angeles or San Francisco understands the important and symbiotic existance of ag in our great state.
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