Election 2020: Imperial Irrigation District has two seats on November ballot

Mark Olalde
Palm Springs Desert Sun
The Imperial Irrigation District has two open seats, both with two candidates vying for them.

Four candidates are vying for two seats on the Imperial Irrigation District's five-member board of directors on Nov. 3. The election will be the culmination of contentious races that already eliminated one incumbent in the primary. 

Water is power in the Imperial Valley, where one of California's agricultural hubs is fed by a huge Colorado River allotment, an apportionment controlled by IID. With an annual water entitlement of 3.1 million acre feet, IID serves roughly 500,000 acres of agriculture, feeds the ever-shrinking Salton Sea and hopes to spur further industrial growth in one of the state's poorest counties.

IID is also the electricity provider for nearly 6,500 square miles of Southern California, including all of Imperial County and the eastern portion of the Coachella Valley. However, Riverside County residents are not given votes for the IID board.

Candidates fielded Desert Sun questions about their stances. Some answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Division 2: JB Hamby and Ryan Childers

The race for Division 2, which includes Heber and part of El Centro, pits attorney Ryan Childers against a 24-year-old graduate of Stanford University and fourth-generation Imperial Valley resident, JB Hamby. Long-time Director Bruce Kuhn was unseated in the primary.

JB Hamby

The Desert Sun: The Salton Sea problem persists and is inextricable tied to IID. What's a solution, and what role does IID play?

Hamby: The Salton Sea is a tremendous environmental asset for Californians. The sea has been host to over 400 species of migratory birds and has historically maintained a symbiotic relationship with Imperial Valley agriculture. ...

The Salton Sea’s problems are twofold: water quality and water quantity. Prior to the massive transfers of water out of the Imperial Valley to the coast of Southern California, the Salton Sea suffered rising levels of salinity and occasional illness in several bird populations. ... Today, however, the Salton Sea’s far larger threat is water quantity. As less water enters the Imperial Valley due to enormous transfers of water designed to reduce urban Southern California’s historic overuse of their Colorado River entitlement, less water also enters the Salton Sea. ...

These massive and destructive transfers were agreed to on the principle and contractual obligation that the Salton Sea would be restored by the state of California. Seventeen years into this agreement, the continued longevity of these agreements have become more tenuous than ever before due to the total failure of the state to meet its obligations after nearly two decades of inaction. 

TDS: IID is tied up in litigation over control of and access to Colorado River water with parties ranging from Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to Michael Abatti. Do you support the district’s positions in its ongoing lawsuits, or are there any you would seek to shift?

Hamby: The litigation with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a California Environmental Quality Act challenge to MWD’s unilateral action to somehow, in some way, contribute enormous volumes of water as part of the 2019 Drought Contingency Plan without having identified where this water may come from. 

Beyond MWD’s limited storage, the enormous volumes of water could only conceivably be obtained from the Delta in Northern California or from the Imperial or Palo Verde Valleys, each option beset with enormous environmental consequences. The district’s legal challenge is justified, though I do posit that we must learn from the mistakes of the Drought Contingency Plan planning from 2013-2018 and have a much improved strategy for 2026 renegotiations of the soon expiring 2007 Interim Guidelines for shortage on the Colorado River.

The appellate court’s ruling in the Abatti lawsuit in short stated two things: one, that placing the entire burden of a potential shortage entirely on one class of water users in the Equitable Distribution Plan was inherently inequitable; and two, that the Imperial Irrigation District holds a contract to divert water from the Colorado River for use in Imperial Valley where users have a legally enforceable right to service. ...

TDS: What is your position on attempts by politicians and businesspeople north of the Salton Sea to either give seats on the board of directors to Riverside County residents or remove electricity generation from the IID?

Hamby: IID and the then Coachella Valley (County) Water District signed an agreement in 1934 that settled a number of water disputes between the two regions. The result has been a lasting arrangement that has been incredibly beneficial to both regions providing reliable and low cost public power for the entire service area.

Attempts to hijack the IID board ... and achieve double-representation for Coachella Valley residents is simply not reasonable or justified based on the historic agreements between the districts and the mutual value created by this unique arrangement.

There was a desire by the U.S. Department of the Interior after the passage of the Boulder Canyon Project Act — which authorized the construction of the Hoover Dam, All-American Canal and its Coachella branch and assigned water rights contracts in the Lower Basin — to have IID's water service area and representation on the board encompass both the Imperial and Coachella valleys. This was strongly opposed at the time by Coachella Valley residents who desired a water district of their own. ...

TDS: What would you prioritize, if elected?

Hamby: In 2026, key agreements governing the Colorado River will expire. There is a concerted effort across the Colorado River Basin to move water from rural and marginalized communities, including our own, drying them up to build thirsty, sprawling growth in big cities. Imperial Valley has the largest water right and the most to lose on the Colorado River. ... The stakes could not be higher.

I have made three pledges to Division 2 voters.

  1. Honor this four-year ratepayer protection pledge: “I, JB Hamby, pledge to the ratepayers of the Imperial Irrigation District, that I will oppose any and all efforts to raise power rates.”
  2. Introduce this resolution to protect Imperial Valley’s water forever by giving the people of Imperial Valley the right to vote to keep our water in our Valley: “A (two-thirds) affirmative vote of the public shall be required in a general election to authorize the Imperial Irrigation District to seek, propose, enter into, or otherwise facilitate a voluntary new or enlarged transfer, sale, lease, compensated forbearance, or other generation of additional conserved Colorado River water to be made available for use outside of the Imperial Irrigation District water service area.”
  3. Three, demand dignity for public health and habitat at the Salton Sea and New River by holding California accountable for failing to meet its responsibilities to the Salton Sea — by all means required including declaring a breach of the Quantification Settlement Agreement water transfers if necessary. Work to require New River water quality to be compliant with the Clean Water Act.

Ryan Childers: Hamby's opponent, attorney Ryan Childers, did not respond to requests for comment.

According to Childers's campaign website, he grew up in the Imperial and is raising his two children there as fifth-generation valley residents.

"Because of this, I have a vested interest in fighting for our Valley and working to address the issues that matter most," he wrote on his website. "Issues like preserving and protecting our water rights, keeping power rates affordable, restoring the Salton Sea and demanding action on the New River."

He lists local elected officials including county Supervisor Ray Castillo, Sheriff Raymond Loera and others among his endorsements.

Childers calls the idea of putting Riverside County residents on IID's board "a nonstarter" because it would allow a vote on water rights to come from outside the valley.

Division 4: Erik Ortega and Javier Gonzalez

Incumbent Erik Ortega is challenged by community organizer Javier Gonzalez for the Division 4 seat, which includes much of Calexico and parts of IID's service area along the U.S.-Mexico border. Ortega was first elected in 2016 and previously served as school board president at Calexico Unified School District.

Erik Ortega

TDS: How should IID address environmental issues at the Salton Sea?

Ortega: The water transfers under the 2003 QSA are causing the Salton Sea to shrink, which was predicted at the time. What wasn’t predicted, and should have been, was that the state of California would wait 17 years to meet its responsibility under the QSA or that the federal government would try to walk away from the problem.

IID’s role at the Salton Sea has so far been to remind its QSA partners that they cannot have water resiliency in Southern California at the expense of the Salton Sea and to the detriment of the public health. We are reaching the full ramp-up of the water transfers to San Diego and CVWD but are no closer to a plan for the Salton Sea that people who live around it can believe in.

I will continue to advocate for a realistic plan that addresses the air impacts from a receding shoreline, including habitat projects that will cover the exposed playa and development of the geothermal resource there for the same purpose, and to assist the state in meeting its renewable energy goals.

I am not for blowing up the QSA, but I am for upholding its commitment to the Salton Sea, without which there would not have been a QSA.

Gonzalez: In 2015, as a graduate student at SDSU-IV, I won the student research symposium with a New River and Salton Sea study. Out of 487 research studies ours (about wetlands) won top prize on all categories. ... The New River wetlands do work to clean the river water going into the sea. But we were scheduled to build 30 and only completed three and can hardly maintain them. For now, I recommend starting planting cedar trees all over the sea to try and halt the dust particles in the future. And we should continue with the creation of the additional 27 wetlands along the new River. The wetlands also serve as a great place for hiking, recreation and hunting. ...

TDS: Where do you stand on the district's current litigation around the Colorado River?

Ortega: The CEQA lawsuit against the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California centers on potential impacts to the Salton Sea from the 2019 Drought Contingency Plan, which treated the environmental problem at the Salton Sea as if it didn’t exist, in my view. The Abatti lawsuit was filed against IID seven years ago, and the board had no choice but to defend the agency and the public from the threat to its water rights and its governance.

Gonzalez: As an IID director, my duty would be to represent the people, the ratepayers and farmers. I would really need to review and study this legal issue further and deeper.

TDS: Where do you stand on attempts to give seats on the board to Riverside County electricity ratepayers?

Ortega: I am against adding seats from outside the irrigation service territory to the IID board of directors and would oppose any effort to split the energy department into a separate utility. I do support the negotiations between IID and CVWD as to the termination of their 1934 Compromise Agreement, which will expire in 2033, and I think that is a more productive forum for the two agencies to discuss what happens after that date.

Gonzalez: Absolutely not. IID stays in the Imperial Valley. IID directors can appoint Riverside County residents to the different committees and commissions within the IID, but the board is and should be solely from the Imperial Valley!

TDS: What are your priorities, if reelected?

Ortega: If reelected, my goals are to keep energy rates low, protect the Imperial Valley’s water rights and to put the district’s resources to work for all of our water users and energy ratepayers.

Gonzalez: Energy, safety, sustainability projects and the New River.

In Calexico, we are at capacity in energy. We must build a new substation immediately. Canal safety and street safety are very important as the All-American Canal and many other canals go through our neighborhoods. In Area 4, almost one-third of the public lighting is broken. We must work with local governments to make sure our neighborhoods are well-lighted.

Of course, sustainability projects like solar energy that can help alleviate the cost of many of our low-income people and seniors is a must. With year-round sun, we can take advantage. Lastly, the New River will be a top priority. A wetland as close to the border as possible and more along the route to the Salton Sea will be our focus. We must not reinvent the wheel, as the congressional task force on the New River and Ducks Unlimited already laid the roadmap.

Mark Olalde covers the environment for The Desert Sun. Get in touch at molalde@gannett.com, and follow him on Twitter at @MarkOlalde.