IID responds to U.S. Supreme Court on Abatti lawsuit
CBS 13's April Hettinger analyzes the statement from the IID and the opposing arguments
EL CENTRO, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - A tense water rights battle continues in the Imperial Valley, in the Michael Abatti versus Imperial Irrigation District (IID) case.
The question: who owns the water that comes from the Colorado River?
The ongoing lawsuit now lies in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court who gave the IID until May 26th to issue a response, which they did, explaining that the water from the Colorado River belongs to all Imperial County residents.
"The water is held and trust. It's a public resource, so the right to that water is everyone's," said Robert Scheffler, public informations officer of the IID.
One point attorney Katie Turner of Sutherland and Gerber noted in the IID's brief is that farmers can now take legal action if there's ever a dispute.
"One of the most significant items in this particular brief is that they're acknowledging that if there's a problem with water distributions, they can sue the IID," Turner explained. "That is not the path we wanted to go on. We wanted a more certain path regarding water."
Farmers still push for the water rights to be tied to the land so they don't have to escalate the argument. The IID says it plans to revise the Equitable Distribution Plan to make it more of a compromise.
"If farmer A was short of water and farmer B had excess, he had a way to transfer the water to get what he needed to finish his crop which is great, but there is no transfer of funds," Scheffler stated.
The IID doesn't believe the case will be heard at the federal level, but farmers like Paula Pangle, 2nd vice president of the Imperial County Farm Bureau, say the fact that the u-s supreme court required the IID to respond is a good sign they are interested.
"We want to make sure about the priority which is what started us down this road in the first place, and that agriculture has its priority which is above things like industry but is below municipality because with water being are lifeline for this community, then you can look at agriculture, being the number one industry, that it's truly the heartbeat of this community," Pangle said.
But, farmers are also IID customers.
"Some of these petitioners are our customers, alright. So, our job is to serve them. We want them to prosper," Scheffler explained.
The U.S. Supreme Court could make a decision by June 24, before they go on summer break, on whether or not they will hear the case.
Tonight, 13 On Your Side's April Hettinger hears from both sides about this years-long lawsuit that has major impact on half a million acres of land.
