Abatti OK with no Quantification Settlement Agreement
By: David Steffen

Imperial Irrigation District Director Michael Abatti said he believes the Quantification Settlement Agreement drains district water at the benefit of the coastal cities.

He said he has no objections to Superior Court Judge Roland Candee’s recent ruling that invalidates the QSA.

“If they want to call off the QSA, that’s fine,” Abatti said. “It should be less water, more money and for a shorter period of time.”

Water users on the coast should and would accept higher water rates under any new water transfer, he said. He said desalination is another option at $700 per acre-foot of water.

“They pay $3 a gallon for gasoline, and they haven’t stopped paying for that,” he said.

Abatti said those who crafted the QSA would not be well-suited to prepare any future water transfers.

“They can’t fix the problems with the same minds that created them,” he said.

Abatti said the Imperial Valley needs to protect the water that it first began using when it brought water from the Colorado River to the Valley.

“We are kings on the river on our priorities and privileged rights with the law of the river,” Abatti said in reference to the Imperial Valley. “We should respect those rights that were developed and fought for by our past generations and forefathers and defend those as my oath requires me to.”

The Valley’s claim to Colorado River water is the basis of his statement about “the kings of the river,” he said.

“I consider ourselves the kings of the river because we have the biggest entitlement in California,” he said.

Abatti said a lack of urban planning on the coast led the water agencies there to need more water and they should not impose on the Valley for it.

“The other parties brought this thing into the Valley with demands,” Abatti said about the 2003 QSA signing. “It was their lack of planning that resulted in a crisis of ours.”

Abatti also said he did not think the federal government would take over IID. He said he doubted the federal government would take over IID’s water rights, either.

“I don’t know if they could, as long as we’re beneficially using it, which we’ve been doing for the past 100 years,” Abatti said.

Demands were made in 2003 before the QSA was signed, Abatti said, and he cited documents from members of Congress about the matter. He said the big cities have been demanding the water.

“They’re demanding we give them resources to make them a better place, but at the same time we need to continue to grow and be a better place for it,” he said.

Among the positive uses of water would be renewable energy in the Valley, he said.

“Geothermal, solar — these need to be developed,” he said. “We’re a hotspot. It’s going to be good for the Imperial Valley’s economy and for the state and the West to meet their required mandates for renewable efforts.”

The QSA, while serving a beneficial purpose for the coastal cities, infringes on the Valley’s water rights, Abatti said.

“The QSA is a good deal for everyone outside Imperial County lines, but it’s a bad deal for everybody inside Imperial County lines,” he said.