Report on Reconstituting the Local Entity
by Charles J. Hosken, General Manager, Imperial Irrigation District

The fundamental dispute between the Imperial Irrigation District and the San Diego County Water Authority over the socioeconomic impacts of fallowing in the Imperial Valley has persisted for far too long. It has overshadowed the tangible benefits of the water transfer agreement and frustrated the work of the Local Entity.

The task given to this group--to develop and implement a mitigation plan to address the thrid-party impacts of fallowing--would have been difficult under ideal conditions. With San Diego disputing the existence of those impacts, though, it proved to be all but impossible.

I do not think that entity members were to blame for the group's inability to complete its mission; rather I think the fault lies with that portion of the 2003 transfer agreement dealing with socioeconomic impacts and dispute resolution and a reluctance on the IID's part to hold San Diego accountable for what I regard as its failure to perform.

In reconstituting the entity's membership, I have consulted with Imperial County and other interests in an effort to streamline both its size and the scope of its mission. The five individuals who will make up the new entity are charged with applying relevant criteria for the distribution of the $3.5 million in mitigation funds that San Diego does not dispute.

The reconstituted Local Entity will operate under new bylaws that are consistent with provisions of the revised fou rth amendment to the IID/San Diego transfer agreement. At the same time, IID will aggressively pursue arbitration of the fallowing question in order to resolve, once and for all, the dispute between it and the water authority.

In making the recommendation to disband and the reconstitute the membership of the Local Entity, I have been mindful of the fact that we cannot go back in time. But we can make a commitment, on behalf of the new entity and those impacted by fallowing, not to lose any more time to bureaucracy, infighting or legal posturing.

The Imperial Valley has waited long enough for San Diego and, to a certain extent, the IID, to do the right thing. I don't believe we can expect, nor should we ask, our customers or the communities we serve to wait any longer.

I want to thank these five prospective members of the Local Entity for agreeing to help the district in bringing this process to a definite conclusion. Their job won't be any easier than it was for members of the previous entity, but they won't be hampered in achieving their objective by either a lack of support from IID staff or resistance from its legal team.

We have tried being patient with our urban partner, but we will no longer be content to tread water where the impacts of fallowing are concerned.

Local Entity Membership Roster 2006 Local-Entity-Membership-Roster-oct-2006-revised.pdf