In its new capacity as the Local Entity, the deliberative body responsible for soliciting claims and distributing mitigation funds to those affected by the adverse socioeconomic impacts of land fallowing in the Imperial Valley, the Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors has begun the latest grant application process.

Utilizing the procedures established by the reconstituted, all-volunteer entity that was tasked with distributing $3.5 million in fallowing mitigation funds for the 2003-04 and 2004-05 fallowing years, the IID board will be soliciting applications from farm-service providers in the non-competitive round of the process in the next 30 days. The competitive application period, which is open to job-training and human services agencies, will follow this summer.

The 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 fallowing events, which extend from July 1 through June 30, will be covered simultaneously, according to IID general counsel Jeff Garber, who is assisting the board in fulfilling the Local Entity function. IID is fallowing Imperial Valley farmland through an annual subscription process as a means of generating water for transfer to the San Diego County Water Authority and the Coachella Valley Water District.

Through the first 15 years of the water transfer agreement, IID is fallowing as the chief means of generating conserved water, mainly to lessen the environmental impact to the Salton Sea. A fallowing mitigation fund of $50 million was established to address the third-party socioeconomic impacts, of which approximately $46.5 million remains to be distributed through 2017. 

This agricultural-to-urban water transfer, which is the largest in the U.S., began in 2003, when the IID became a signatory to the Quantification Settlement Agreement, a water conservation pact that enabled the state of California to live within its annual allotment from the Colorado River of 4.4 million acre-feet.  

The Local Entity, in approving the fallowing mitigation claims as submitted on Sept. 29, 2009, has determined that the 10-day appeals process for the submission of appeals by applicants whose fallowing mitigation claims were disallowed should be extended by an additional 20 days. 

As a result, appellants will have until Oct. 29, 2009, to submit their appeals against the determinations already made. 

In order to address any questions or concerns related to the actions taken by the Local Entity and to explain the appeals process, a workshop has been scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009 at 6 p.m. in the IID Auditorium, 1285 Broadway, El Centro.

All fallowing mitigation claims submitted, and their disposition by the Local Entity, are accessible via this Web site. Hard copies may be obtained through the IID general manager’s office at 333 East Barioni Blvd. in Imperial.  

Local Entity Contact List LE.2009.Local-Entitybd.members.2009.pdf