Mojave Groundwater Bank
Mojave Groundwater Bank
The Mojave Groundwater Bank (MGB) is a public-private partnership between public and private water agencies, Native American Tribes, and Cadiz Inc. to provide clean, sustainable, and affordable water supplies to communities in Southern California and the Southwestern United States. The project The project, as designed, will draw groundwater from a vast naturally recharging aquifer system under a permit from San Bernardino County, then uses a repurposed natural gas pipeline and a new pipeline in an existing rail right-of-way to conserve, store and deliver thiswater to communities on the front lines of climate change.
Construction could begin as soon as 2026, making it one of the few shovel-ready water solutions available to Southern California. The heart of the MGB is a 2,000-square-mile watershed. Cadiz Ranch sits at the base of that watershed, directly above one of the largest known freshwater aquifers in the U.S., estimated to hold between 30 and 50 million acre-feet of high-quality groundwater. Interesting comparisons:
• The watershed is larger than the entire state of Rhode Island.
• The aquifer holds more water than Lake Mead, the nation’s largest surface water reservoir, which now holds less than half its 28 million acre-foot design volume due to prolonged drought.
From a conservation and sustainability perspective, MGB makes sense. The watershed above Cadiz forms a closed hydrologic basin, where precipitation from surrounding mountains slowly travels deep underground – far too deep for it to be used by plants or animals – to two dry lakes that are a few miles down-gradient from the Cadiz Ranch. There it becomes saltier than seawater and evaporates. MGB conserves this water by capturing it before it’s lost to salinity and evaporation, creating an immediately available new water supply to our drought-prone region.
Why SWA Supports the Mojave Groundwater Bank: Besides being an environmentally sensitive, sustainable new water supply that provides much-needed water to communities impacted by climate change and meaningful employment to hundreds of union families, the MGB also has massive capacity to store water. The two pipelines serving the MGB will be able to move wet-year water between the State Water Project and the Colorado River Aqueduct through Cadiz, where it also can be stored until it’s needed in dry years. This will create the first-ever connection between Southern California’s two primary water supply sources, which will provide new opportunities for the region’s water managers to prepare for and respond to droughts.
New scientific paper finds no evidence to support claims that the Mojave Groundwater Bank could harm desert springs.
Secure Water Alliance supports Bureau of Land Management approval of Northern Pipeline.
Sustainable Water Supply
The Mojave Groundwater Bank will create a new water supply for up to 400,000 people across the region every year for the next 50 years.
Positive Economic Impact
The Mojave Groundwater Bank will contribute $878 million to the San Bernardino County economy and create nearly 3,000 jobs.
Water Conservation
The Mojave Groundwater Bank will conserve approximately 500 billion gallons of fresh water over the 50 year life of the Project.
Water Storage
Up to one million acre-feet of water from the State Water Project and/or the Colorado River Aqueduct can be moved to the Mojave Groundwater Bank for storage via its northern and southern pipelines.
