New Peer-Reviewed Study: Cadiz Water Project Will Not Harm Desert Springs
Opponents of the Cadiz Water Project have long claimed the project will harm Mojave Desert springs, despite the court-validated EIR’s findings and protections built into the project’s groundwater management plan.
Undaunted by science, opponents still persist in their claims, so Cadiz sponsored a new, peer-reviewed geology/hydrology study that shows how the nearest spring (Bonanza) was formed, and how Cadiz operations cannot harm it. Hopefully, this will put the matter to rest.
Briefly, the study, which included numerous days of field work in the Bonanza spring area, identified two convergent fault zones that are blocking, or “damming,” upstream groundwater flowing in fractured bedrock above the spring. These faults intersect exactly at the Bonanza spring, and groundwater is surfacing from the fractured rocks and spilling over the faults to form it. This fractured rock is at a limited depth and does not extend to the downstream alluvial aquifer in the Fenner Gap, where the Water Project will operate.
The catchment area created by the faulting provides a long-term source of water from above the spring that is independent of, and not influenced by, conditions in the alluvial aquifer at the Cadiz area miles below. These observed physical data points provide incontrovertible evidence that the spring will not be affected by project operations.
For the PDF of the study, the Cadiz news release, author/peer bios, fact sheets, a video and photos, click here: https://t.co/99vomlPxUd
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