Protecting California’s Wild Places from Corporate Water Raiders

The Cadiz Inc water mining project hopes to extract 50,000 acre-feet of water per year from under one the driest places in California, the Mojave Trails National Monument near Joshua Tree National Park. Cadiz wants to sell it to major water districts across Southern California, including ones on LA’s Westside. Join Chris Clarke, Desert Program Manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, and NPCA Consultant and Sierra Club Activist John Monsen as they recount the stranger-than-fiction history of the project, its current status, and what Sierra Club members can do to help stop Cadiz Inc water from ending up in their homes.

As the latest science shows, the Cadiz-Inc. planned drawdown of underground Mojave Desert water that is up to 15,000 years old would have devastating impacts on the desert springs that sustain life. This includes Bonanza Springs, which is critical to Desert Bighorn Sheep. Despite its environmental threat, Cadiz Inc has been adroit at keeping its project alive. A required federal permit was waved by the Trump Administration when a partner in the law firm the represents Cadiz was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Department of Interior. Cadiz stalled two Sierra Club-backed bills in the state legislature in 2017-18 that would have killed the project despite overwhelming support from our elected representatives. A new legislative effort is expected in 2019.

About the presenters:
Chris Clarke is the California Desert program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), where, he works with desert communities to protect national parks, monuments, and other protected places, and the landscapes that surround them. Prior to joining NPCA, Chris was environment editor at Los Angeles-based KCET, the nation’s largest independent public television station, where he was responsible for breaking numerous stories about threats to desert national parks. Before that, Chris worked as publications director at Earth Island Institute, where he published the award-winning Earth Island Journal — whose content shifted noticeably toward a focus on desert issues during his tenure. A California resident since the early 1980s, Chris has lived in the California Desert since 2008. He lives in Joshua Tree, California with his dog, Heart.

John Monsen, a long-time Sierra Club public lands activist, is President of JFM Consulting, which is supporting the NPCA in its efforts to stop Cadiz. John was on the Sierra Club National Field Staff in Los Angeles for seven years prior to opening his own consulting firm in 2011. In 2017 he was a recipient of the Angeles Chapter’s Extraordinary Achievement Award for organizing work that successfully lead to the creation of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. He has helped to launch several major Club campaigns and initiatives, most notably San Gabriel Mountains Forever, a unique coalition of environmental, social justice and community organizations that has been instrumental in creating a new and better future for the San Gabriel Mountains. John is particularly proud of his 13 year-long effort to help improve the deplorable recreational and aquatic habitat conditions along the East Fork of the San Gabriel River. He plays a leadership role in the Angeles Chapter’s Forest Committee (Chair), Political Committee (Vice Chair) and he is a member of its Water Committee. He is past Chair of the California-Nevada Regional Conservation Committee and a member of the State Legislative Committee.

This free educational event is sponsored by the West Los Angeles Group of the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club.

Event details: Thursday, March 14th, 2019 at 7pm at Culver City Veterans Memorial Auditorium in the Garden room, 4117 Overland Ave., Culver City 90230. Plenty of free lighted parking. Feel free to bring a friend; all meetings are open to both members and non-members of the Sierra Club.