You are now in Media Coverage San Diego County category.

In the more than four decades since I started at the L.A. Times, we’ve never had a reporter cover water with the depth and persistence of Ian James. California’s story is often the story of water — who’s got it, who doesn’t and who will find our next acre-foot. Ian is a former foreign correspondent who has written about everything from novel water solutions like reclaiming sewage, to the intersection of H2O with wildlife and farms. Essential Cal talked to Ian about his work.

The Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors voted unanimously at its regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 2 to endorse California’s Delta Conveyance Project, with managers and directors saying the plan could strengthen the State Water Project and reduce pressure on the drought-stricken Colorado River.

The move is notable because Imperial County does not receive State Water Project water, and IID relies entirely on the Colorado River. The district said the endorsement underscores how the state’s two major water systems are linked, and that improving reliability in one benefits the other. The IID described its action as a “significant and unusual endorsement” in a press release, noting that it is the largest irrigation district in the United States and the largest single user of Colorado River water.

California’s biggest irrigation district is throwing its support behind a controversial water diversion project that aims to help relieve the Golden State’s historic battle with drought but also faces widespread local opposition.

The Imperial Irrigation District — the biggest district not only in California, but also the nation — declared on Tuesday that it was issuing “a significant and unusual endorsement” for the state’s proposed Delta Conveyance Project.

For millennia, humans have sought to make seawater drinkable. Ancient mariners tried distillation by boiling the oceans in which they sailed, and in more recent times, engineers have experimented with filters and chemicals .

As the climate warms, populations surge and droughts intensify, there is a growing need to make the sea drinkable. Desalination technology is spreading fastest in the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Asia, where there is plenty of ocean but dwindling supplies of fresh water.