December 12, 2018 – Los Angeles – Yesterday, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) released to the media a copy of a letter sent from the California Department of Fish & Wildlife to the Company regarding permitting of the Cadiz Valley Water Conservation, Recovery and Storage Project (Water Project). Scott Slater, Cadiz CEO, gave the following statement regarding the letter:
 
“Yesterday, Senator Feinstein leaked a letter sent from the outgoing director of the California Department of Fish & Wildlife to the Company as part of an ongoing process of preparing applications for permits under the Department’s Land and Streambed Alteration program. It is anticipated that such permits will be required prior to construction of the Project’s 43-mile conveyance pipeline.  We were disappointed that Senator Feinstein engaged in another political stunt at the Project’s expense today , which we suspect was an attempt to distract from the environmental community’s strong opposition to her support of legislation related to the movement of water to the Central Valley.
 
The letter, which should have been directed at the California Environmental Quality Act lead agency for the Project, unfortunately presented a one-sided view of ongoing study of springs in the watershed surrounding the project area by technical experts. As a result we are concerned about CDFW’s partiality in addressing the permits when they are filed in the future. We have provided the letter to Santa Margarita Water District, the CEQA Lead Agency, and other Responsible Agencies for review. We trust CDFW will abide by the CEQA process requirements and applicable law in any future review of stream channel crossing permits when applications are ultimately filed.”
 
The Company sent a letter in response to CDFW, a copy is available here.