Update August 25, 2023

The following post has been updated to include a 4 page letter from Don Zdeba, General Manager of the Indian Wells Valey Water District dated August 9, 2023 which was sent to the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority

Mr. Zdeba retired from the Indian Wells Valley Water district on August 11, 2023 after ____ years working for the district and prior to that, for a well-deserved retirement after many years serving the customers of the water district while navigating through one of the most controversial and critical issues facing the Indian Wells Valley, the City of Ridgecrest and the Navy at China Lake.

Subject: Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority

Imported Water Conveyance System Project (AVEK Pipeline)

February 13, 2023

Ridgecrest California

As the seventh year of the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority comes to a close, we’ll attempt to answer the question that the IWVGA has been unable to answer thus far:

We’ve prepared a simple Excel spreadsheet that you can download and play with in order to answer the question for yourself.

The spreadsheet includes cells that you can change as new information becomes available and it can be used by the decision-makers in order to keep everyone on the same page.

You’ll see that the difference in the costs between importing water from the San Joaquin Valley via AVEK and California City, which is over 50 miles to the valley, are substantially higher than buying water from LADWP and building a pipeline from the LA Aqueduct which is less than 10 miles from the nearest IWV Water District’s connection point on Inyokern Road near Buttermilk Acres.

In the example below, AVEK will cost $117 per month and LADWP will cost $74 per month.

For more information, please see previous posts on this topic: