From press release to pocketbook
Cadiz, Inc today announced that the Santa Margarita Water District and Three Valleys Municipal Water District have agreed to stand as lead agencies in a review under the California Environmental Quality Act to evaluate the risks of reviving a previously discredited plan to mine Mojave Desert groundwater to serve the Southern Californian urban conurbation.
The share price responded with a jump of more than 14 per cent before declining.
No water has been produced by this 12-year-old scheme, however for the last year skillfully deployed press releases have made Cadiz a volatile and occasionally lucrative stock. It would take a SEC investigation to see if a run on the shares last year involving a privately secured endorsement from the Governor of California amounted to insider trading by directors at the expense of stockholders.
Today’s news about two Southern California water companies …
Manufacturing a mirage
No news is no news, unless you’re selling water in the desert, in which case, you’re probably pretty good at making it up. Hats off to Cadiz, Inc for today announcing the name of the drilling company that they will prefer for a groundwater mining project that hasn’t undergone environmental review yet. Making premature announcements is one way to make the project look further along than it is for shareholders, but the main intent seems to be to stoke local political support for the project by dangling the promise of jobs.…
Cadiz now a “conservation project”
To hear Scott Slater, General Counsel of Cadiz Inc, Emily Green of Chance of Rain, Elden Hughes of the Sierra Club and Richard Sierra of the San Bernardino Union of Carriers, Building & Construction Laborers, Local 783 discuss the Cadiz groundwater project in the Mojave Desert on today’s KPCC AirTalk, click here. Slater claims that harvesting groundwater from the desert is now a “conservation” project. Green and Hughes don’t buy it. Sierra wants jobs.
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