Sup. V. Manuel Perez visits Lake Cahuilla amid talks to keep it open for recreational use

On Saturday 4th District Supervisor V. Manuel Perez visited Lake Cahuilla Veterans Regional Park amid talks between several agencies to keep the lake open.

Last month the Coachella Valley Water District Board of Directors voted to extend its lease with the county for another year, after the lease would have expired in March.

Local advocates, including founder of the local nonprofit Desert Valley Outdoors, Julian Rangel, have been fighting to keep the lake open.

"Lake Cahuilla is actually the only spot within an hour drive, folks can come on out and enjoy outdoor activities such as fishing, hiking, biking," said Rangel.

Rangel's organization works with desert youth and the community to get people outdoors.

"With the kids being on video games for fun and then now they have to be on computers for school, they’re getting a lot of screen time. You got to get them outdoors and teach them the finer things of outdoorsmanship," said Rangel.

But as several agencies work out an agreement to keep the lake open for recreation, renewing the 50-year-old lease has come with some modern-day challenges. An invasive species known as the quagga mussel, has gradually migrated toward the western United States.

"We know that there’s been infestations in other areas of the state and when they do get in they cause a tremendous amount of damage, mainly in the form of just clogging up the pipes," said Coachella Valley Water District Board of Directors Vice President, Castulo Estrada.

CVWD is responsible for delivering water to local agriculture from the Colorado River. Aside from serving as a picturesque recreational site, the lake serves as one of the passing points for the water.

The biggest challenge that has arisen is determining which organization would be liable if quagga mussel were to clog up underground pipelines.

"Once they get in there you really can’t eradicate them so you have to replace the pipe. I think that we estimated that you have about 100 million dollars worth of infrastructure downstream," said Estrada.

"Part of the challenge is the liability and who ultimately will be liable in case we end up in a situation where our pipe infrastructure does get plugged, said Sup. Perez.

The City of La Quinta and Desert Recreation District are among those working with the county and CVWD toward a solution.

"In that 1 year we’re going to be working on trying to see how we can have a long term lease- 25 maybe 50 years," said Sup. Perez.

"My feeling is that we’re navigating more so into a space of collaboration and cooperation to where we’re saying, well maybe let’s not spend so much time trying to find out whose responsibility it would be if the infestation were to occur- let’s just make sure that it doesn’t occur," said Estrada.

The organizations will continue to hold meetings to sort out the matter.

"Under the leadership of Estrada, they voted for a one-year extension, however, if they do not agree in one year they also made the point that they would extend it another year to ensure that we’re able to one day get to that point as to what that agreement will actually look like," said Sup. Perez.

In the meantime, Rangel plans to keep the momentum going by continuing to advocate.

"I’m going to keep pushing to see if we can get this contract done in 6 months. There’s no reason why it should be lingering out there for a year," said Rangel.