Our primary business activities are focused on the pursuit of the highest, best, and most sustainable uses of our land and water resources in eastern San Bernardino County, California.
We own 45,000 acres (70 square miles) of land in eastern San Bernardino County, California, including approximately 34,000 acres in the Cadiz Valley, 9,000 acres in the Piute Valley, and 2,000 acres near Danby Dry Lake. Virtually all of this land is underlain by high-quality, natural groundwater resources and has excellent potential for various uses including groundwater supply and storage projects, agriculture, renewable energy development, permanent open space, and residential development. Click Here for a map of our properties.
Cadiz Valley
Cadiz owns approximately 34,000 acres (55 square miles) of land and related high-quality groundwater resources in the Cadiz Valley of eastern San Bernardino County. Our property is one of the largest contiguous private landholdings in the region and is located in close proximity to the Colorado River Aqueduct and an approved transmission corridor. The aquifer system underlying this property is located at the confluence of two watersheds spanning approximately 1,300 square miles, an area nearly three times the size of the city of Los Angeles. The watershed is naturally recharged by groundwater that originates as rain and snowmelt in the surrounding mountains. Experts estimate the aquifer system contains roughly 17-34 million acre-feet of pure, indigenous groundwater. The proposed Cadiz Valley Water Conservation, Recovery and Storage Project would be located on a small portion of the property.
About 9,600 acres of the property are zoned for agricultural development; approximately 500 acres are currently farmed. We rely on groundwater for irrigation. Additionally, we are currently considering the use of additional portions of this property for solar energy development.
OUR WATER RESOURCES
Our 35,000 acre Cadiz Valley property lies at the base of the Fenner and Orange Blossom Wash Watersheds. These Watersheds span an area of more than 1,300 square miles and contain approximately 17 – 34 million acre-feet of water in storage — an amount comparable to Lake Mead, the nation’s largest surface reservoir. (1acre-foot = 326,000 gallons).
Rain and melted snow that falls in the surrounding mountains of the Watersheds percolates into the soil and becomes pure groundwater. Flora, fauna, and springs take what they need at the higher elevations and then groundwater travels from the mountainous upper ends of the Watersheds down through the valley and into the aquifer system. Over time, the water moves slowly through the aquifer system below our property and ends up at the highly saline dry lakes where it becomes undrinkable and is lost to evaporation.
Since 1993, we have used a small portion of the groundwater beneath our property for ongoing agricultural operations. We are also pursuing the Cadiz Valley Water Conservation, Recovery and Storage Project to conserve some of the groundwater being lost at the dry lakes and put it to beneficial use by delivering a new supply to southern California water providers.
Piute Valley
Our second largest landholding is approximately 8,500 acres in the Piute Valley of eastern San Bernardino County. This landholding is located approximately 15 miles from Laughlin, Nevada and about 12 miles from the Colorado River town of Needles, California. Extensive hydrological studies, including the drilling and testing of a full-scale production well, have demonstrated that this land is also underlain by high-quality groundwater. The aquifer system underlying this property is naturally recharged by rain and melted snow within a watershed of approximately 975 square miles.
This valley is also home to our Desert Tortoise Conservation Bank.
Danby Property
Cadiz owns 1,500 acres near Danby Dry Lake, approximately 30 miles southeast of our Cadiz Valley property. The Danby Lake property is located approximately 10 miles north of the Colorado River Aqueduct. Initial hydrological studies indicate that it has excellent potential for a sustainable, groundwater conservation and storage project. We are also considering using portions of this property for certain facilities of the Cadiz Valley Water Conservation, Recovery and Storage Project.