Lawsuit challenges Trump administration’s latest bid to drain Mojave Desert

LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Environmental organizations sued the Trump administration today for approving a private company's plan to resurrect a defunct oil and gas pipeline to transport and sell groundwater out of the Mojave Desert, a move the plaintiffs contend would devastate imperiled species like the desert tortoise and desert bighorn sheep.

In their Los Angeles federal court lawsuit, the Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club allege the Bureau of Land Management's approval of the Cadiz water project pipeline ignores the project's environmental harms and violates the National Environmental Policy Act and other laws governing public lands.

``BLM's attempt to revive this inadequately studied project is another example of how the Trump administration is selling out the American people and our public lands to private industry hellbent on profiting from natural resources,'' plaintiffs attorney Elizabeth Forsyth said in a statement. ``It's
like Groundhog's Day: they still haven't corrected the legal errors previously identified by the court, and we're filing another lawsuit to address the same concerns.''

The pipeline crosses Mojave Trails National Monument and other protected federal public land in southeastern California. Its operation would dry up freshwater springs that desert plants and animals need to survive, the suit said, resulting in devastation for imperiled species like the desert tortoise and desert bighorn sheep.

A message sent to the BLM seeking comment was not immediately answered.

``The Trump administration is once again handing out favors to its cronies determined to suck the Mojave Desert dry,'' said Lisa Belenky, a CBD senior attorney. ``Courts have repeatedly ruled against the Cadiz project and yet the federal government is ignoring the consequences of this disastrous groundwater pumping scheme. Desert creatures like the bighorn sheep won't survive if key springs and seeps they need are lost. That's why we are determined to keep fighting this ill-conceived project.''

Plaintiffs contend Cadiz plans to extract far more groundwater from the desert aquifers than is replenished naturally. The drawdown of the water table will deplete and expose desert playa lakebeds, resulting in air pollution from windswept sediments laden with toxic heavy metals, according to the suit filed in Los Angeles federal court.

In 2021, environmental groups sued the BLM when it approved the Cadiz project in the final days of the first Trump administration and in 2022 a federal judge vacated the approval.