Re "Firm wants to tap liquid gold in the Mojave Desert," May 16

The Cadiz Inc.project will drain an aquifer in the eastern Mojave Desert and pipe it to the lawns of Orange County, reaping billions for the company.

Conspicuously absent from the debate is the government of San Bernardino County, which was required to produce an environmental review but punted it to a water district nearly 200 miles away. Now it has moved to exempt the Cadiz project from the local groundwater law, signing away its enforcement authority for the laughably weak provisions of the exemption agreement, which, among other things, waits an entire decade before even calculating harm to the aquifer.

Our groundwater is a public resource, being squandered here to make a few people rich and destroying the environment in the process. The government has a responsibility to stop this dirty water grab.

Ileene Anderson

Los Angeles

Copyright © 2012 Los Angeles Times.

This article originally appeared here.