Our Water Resources
All of our properties in eastern San Bernardino County sit above significant groundwater resources.
Our 35,000 acre Cadiz Valley property lies at the base of the Fenner and Orange Blossom Wash Watersheds. These Watersheds span an area of more than 1,300 square miles and contain approximately 17 – 34 million acre-feet of water in storage — an amount comparable to Lake Mead, the nation’s largest surface reservoir. (1acre-foot = 326,000 gallons).
Rain and melted snow that falls in the surrounding mountains of the Watersheds percolates into the soil and becomes pure groundwater. Flora, fauna, and springs take what they need at the higher elevations and then groundwater travels from the mountainous upper ends of the Watersheds down through the valley and into the aquifer system. Over time, the water moves slowly through the aquifer system below our property and ends up at the highly saline dry lakes where it becomes undrinkable and is lost to evaporation.
Since 1993, we have used a small portion of the groundwater beneath our property for ongoing agricultural operations. We are also pursuing the Cadiz Valley Water Conservation, Recovery and Storage Project to conserve some of the groundwater being lost at the dry lakes and put it to beneficial use by delivering a new supply to southern California water providers.
