Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Latest Attempt to Drain Mojave Desert

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 California’s Mojave Desert.

In today’s lawsuit, the Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club, represented by Earthjustice and Center attorneys, say the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) approval of the Cadiz Water Project pipeline ignores the project’s significant environmental harms and violates the National Environmental Policy Act and other laws governing public lands.

“BLM’s attempt to revive this project without public process or environmental review 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. 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,” said Earthjustice attorney Elizabeth Forsyth.

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. This would be devastating for imperiled species like the desert tortoise and desert bighorn sheep.

“The Trump administration is once again handing out favors to its cronies determined to suck the Mojave Desert dry,” said Lisa Belenky, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “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.”

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.

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 that approval. Rather than defend its unlawful decision, the agency admitted it should have accounted for the harm pumping groundwater would have on the surrounding desert ecosystem.

In addition to the environmental devastation from pumping water out of ancient desert aquifers, converting the oil and gas pipeline to carry water will also cause substantial environmental harm before any groundwater is pumped.

Cadiz has planned extensive construction activities across public lands. This includes bulldozing access roads, installing pumping infrastructure and using heavy-duty equipment over a sprawling area more than 10 times larger than Disneyland. These activities will fragment desert habitat, disturb sensitive biological resources and generate significant air pollution in an area that already suffers from poor air quality.