Congressman Paul Cook Lies to Get Environmental Groups' Support Before the Election....and approves of a scheme to steal more desert water after the election

 Congressman Paul Cook, before the November 4, 2014 election stated he opposed the Cadiz Water Project--when in fact Cook wrote a letter in September to Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, recommending against any further environmental review of the project. The September 2014 letter (before the election) was not released publicly until November 6 (after the election) when Cadiz, Inc. did so in conjunction with its strategy to promote the project and stave off further legal & political challenges to the water theft's lying backers --e.g. Paul Cook -- all first reported in the San Bernardino Sentinel - http://sbsentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Sentinel-11-14-141.pdf
. 
The Cadiz Water Project (also known as the Cadiz Valley Water Conservation, Recovery, and Storage Project)  is a proposal by proponent Los Angeles-based Cadiz, Inc. to extract an average of 50,000 acre-feet of water from the East Mojave Desert annually and convey it via pipeline to Orange and Los Angeles counties for use there.
.
In a letter dated June 12, 2013 to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, Cook stated, “I am writing to request a reevaluation of the impact the Cadiz Valley Water Conservation, Recovery, and Storage Project will have on my constituents in the 8th District of California. The Cadiz Project, as it currently stands, is likely to impact San Bernardino County’s water resources, harming ranchers, rural communities, East Mojave landowners, and the National Chloride Company of America’s brine mining operation on Bristol Dry Lake. Moreover, the aggressive project pumping could harm the springs of the Mojave National Preserve and regional air quality, while exporting precious water resources out of San Bernardino County to ratepayers in Los Angeles and Orange counties.”
.
Cook’s June 12, 2013 letter continued, “In order to ensure this project won’t adversely affect my district (the Californian 8th Congressional District), I respectfully request the Cadiz Project be subject to a National Environmental Policy Act review.  I request that the United States Geologic Survey conduct an updated analysis of the hydrologic features of the project area and that any new or revised Cadiz Project proposals adhere to the principle of sustainable yield, meaning no more water would be pumped out of the aquifer than would be replaced through natural recharge as determined by the United States Geologic Survey. This is intended to protect sustainable water supplies for East Mojave communities and businesses.” Cook further wrote, “Currently, no federal environmental reviews or approvals have been conducted, despite numerous requests from the Bureau of Land Management that Cadiz Inc. supply them with specific project information relating to the construction of a 43-mile water  pipeline along the Arizona and California Railroad right-of-way.” Cook noted,  “Professional independent reviews have called into question the 32,500 acre-feet per year recharge rate Cadiz Inc. claims will naturally occur. These independent scientists concluded that the actual recharge rate is between 2,000 and 10,000 acre feet per year. There are serious doubts about the validity of the previous environmental studies, specifically the draft environmental impact statement“ for the project. Cook concluded, “This project must be examined thoroughly before it moves forward.”
.
Two months ago,  15 months after writing that letter, Paul Cook abruptly shifted course.
.
“Shortly after taking office last year, I wrote to you about the proposed Cadiz Valley Water Conservation, Recovery and Storage Project (“project”), which would be located in California’s Eastern Mojave Desert,” Cook wrote Jewell in a letter dated September 16, 2014. “The project will provide an additional 50,000 acre feet of water per year to the state’s dwindling water supply. It is important to me that my constituents and the land itself are protected from significant environmental harm. For that reason, I asked in my previous letter that a federal environmental review be undertaken for the project. Further developments have changed the dynamics surrounding the project, calling into question the need for federal environmental review and signaling a need to allow the project to move forward.
.
Cook’s letter was written on September 16 while he was engaged in an election campaign against Democratic challenger.
.
Cook betrayed the voters he represents by seeking to shut down further environmental review of the project by a letter NOT released until AFTER the election, AFTER he received environmental groups' support and help based on his June 2013 position letter.
.
Bob Conaway says "the sucking sound you will hear will be our wells being dried up and Paul Cook getting friendlier with Orange and Los Angeles County developers and governmental planners seeking to steal water wherever they can, like they did with Inyo County almost a quarter of a century ago".