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The state of California is asserting landownership rights along a proposed pipeline’s path that would help carry groundwater from a remote part of the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County to Orange County and other communities.

The California Lands Commission asked Cadiz Inc. to fill out an application for a lease permit on a 200-foot-wide by 1-mile-long slice on the project’s proposed 43-mile pipeline.

Environmentalists say this is a major development that could derail, or slow down, a project that’s gained steam in the Trump Administration.

While I was walking back to my seat in the Metropolitan Water District Board Room after having made comments in support of the California Water Fix, a stubbly dude in a porkpie hat looked up and sneered loudly at me, “A**hole!” One might think that I had just completed a tirade against Pabst Blue Ribbon to provoke such a response, but my actual comments were self-explanatory and follow here: My name is John Mirisch and I serve on the Beverly Hills City Council.  My comments reflect my own position, though our Council is supportive of the California Water Fix.

Trust.

That is the essence of the $17 billion Delta tunnels project.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California voted 28-6 Tuesday to move forward with the project, known as the California WaterFix, which would re-engineer the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to send water south to cities and farms.

Three out of five representatives from the city of Los Angeles voted no. Representatives from San Diego either voted no or abstained.

California is the sixth largest economy in the world, and Silicon Valley is a primary driver of our state’s job creation and growth. Yet our success is at risk unless we move to protect our water supply. That’s why we are urging the Santa Clara Valley Water District help secure our water supplies now and well into the future by supporting California WaterFix, which will deliver water through modern pipelines.

The Kern County Water Agency has voted to participate in the California WaterFix project, potentially saving one of Gov. Jerry Brown’s two legacy projects: the Delta tunnels. California WaterFix would upgrade the state’s outdated water system and maintain a reliable source of water for 25 million Californians and more than three million acres of farmland in the Bay Area, Central Valley and Southern California, according to a news release issued by California Secretary for Natural Resources John Laird. To date, Kern is the largest agricultural contractor that has voted to support the California WaterFix project.