By ERIC GALVAN, Staff Writer

Tuesday, August 5, 2008 10:43 PM PDT

To John Hunter the fight to add safety measures along the lining of the All-American Canal is a 15-round bout.

In his words, he just won Round 5 on Tuesday as the Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors unanimously approved writing a letter to the San Diego County Water Authority and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to consider Hunter’s safety proposal.

“We just won the fifth round. … Now we’ve got 10 more rounds to go,” Hunter said.

Hunter has been pushing for a 23-mile segment of the All-American Canal to have added safety features that would include a buoy system strung along the canal, fencing and attached ridges that would allow people and large animals to climb out.

The estimated cost of the safety measures is $3 million on top of the $280 million for the canal lining project.

“I think this goes a long way in showing the way we value life,” said IID Director Mike Abatti of the proposal.

Halla Razak, Colorado River programs director for the San Diego County Water Authority, said once the letter is received from the IID and discussion is held internally, it could be placed on a future agenda as soon as the end of this month or early in September.

Razak said the SDCWA has been looking at the human safety aspect of the project, but said it was important to do whatever possible to not allow people in the canal.

She said the types of proposed safety measures could promote canal entrance.

“San Diego, nor the IID, is going to give a false sense of security that it’s OK to be in the canal,” she said. “Some of these measures do give that false sense of security.”

Whatever SDCWA decides, Hunter said he will continue with his efforts.

“It was a huge step, but we still have some groups to deal with,” Hunter said. “But we’re committed to this for as long as it takes.”

>> Staff Writer Eric Galvan can be reached at 337-3441 or at egalvan@ivpressonline.com

By DARREN SIMON, Staff Writer

Saturday, July 28, 2007 10:10 PM PDT
The Imperial Irrigation District has found itself facing criticism from a presidential hopeful and the Los Angeles Times editorial board over the project to build a cement-lined All-American Canal.

At the center of what could become a new debate is the level of safety measures in the 23-mile stretch of the canal to be lined.

Already the safety issue has been a subject of legal battles at the state and federal court levels even as the work to build the canal has started this summer.

Congressman Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, who used to represent the Imperial Valley before redistricting — and who is now a presidential candidate — sent a letter to IID June 13 questioning what he considers a lack of safety measures built into the new canal project.

Just days ago IID responded to Hunter.

In the letter signed by IID board President Stella Mendoza, she says: “It is my belief that safety measures incorporated into the existing design specifications adequately address the need to provide for the public’s health and welfare.”

CENTER OF DEBATE

At the heart of the issue is a 1994 environmental review that called for escape ridges to be built into the cement canal.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the AAC, found the ridges would be structurally unsound and were removed from the project.

IID officials say the decision on whether to include escape ridges rests with the bureau.

It is not a decision IID, which operates the canal and is construction manager over the canal-lining project, could make on its own, district officials say.

The one safety measure in the project involves the placement of “escape” ladders that will be positioned 375 feet a part. IID officials have said they believe the ladders are an adequate safety measure.

Hunter, whose brother John Hunter has been a leading voice in the Valley for immigrant safety — doesn’t think the ladders are sufficient.

Duncan Hunter, like his brother, says IID should add other safety measures.

“These measures include fencing, rope and buoy systems, tapered concrete sides as well as more frequent ladders,” Hunter says in his letter to the district.

RECENT DEATH

He cites the recent death of a Border Patrol agent assigned to the El Centro Sector who drowned in a newly lined Coachella Canal

The L.A. Times editorial board went a step further than Hunter in its criticism of both the Bureau of Reclamation and IID.

The editorial pointed out that 500 people have drowned in the canal since 1942 and the lining project could create even more danger.

“Unless more safety features are added, water officials will have more deaths on their consciences,” the L.A. Times writes in a July 23 editorial.

The issue over the safety features built into the canal project has been a subject of ongoing legal disputes.

A group called Protect Our Water and Environmental Rights has at least one appeal pending in a lawsuit it lost against the canal project. Jim Abatti, brother of IID Director Mike Abatti, is a member of POWER and has been a part of the group’s legal challenges against the canal project.

POWER and Jim Abatti have argued the environmental review for the canal project needs to be revisited over safety issues.

Mike Abatti himself, who has been a member of POWER in the past, was a part of one of the lawsuits the group filed against the canal project and he himself has argued there is a lack of safety measures in the new canal project.

“I think we ought to do whatever is feasibly possible,” Abatti said.

He added while ridges might have been found to be structurally unsound, perhaps with thicker levels of concrete, the ridges could have worked.

“Engineers can do wonderful things,” Abatti said.

He added while adding concrete might increase the cost of the canal lining, it would be worth it to save lives.

The canal project is expected to cost $290 million with the state and the San Diego County Water Authority, which will benefit from the water saved by a lined canal, covering the cost.

Other IID board members say they share the concern over safety, but some of the proposed safety measures suggested by both Duncan and John Hunter, such as placing lifelines along the canal, have their own flaws.

“The district shares the concern for the safety of humans and animals,” Mendoza said.

“However, placing lifelines along the canal as recommended by his brother John Hunter would give the people attempting to cross a false sense of security,” she said.

Director John Pierre Menvielle said there are biased reasons for the L.A. Times editorial and the Duncan Hunter letter.

“With the L.A. Times, they are not getting the water (from the canal lining) so that’s probably why they are taking shots at us and Duncan Hunter is doing it for his brother, John.”

Menvielle said he thinks the safety measures for the project are sufficient to protect life.

But, he said, “First of all, no one has any business swimming in the canal.”

>> Staff Writer Darren Simon can be contacted at dsimon@ivpressonline.com or at 337-3445.

Tim Bousquet
Tue, 12 Jun 2001 15:54:30 -0700

I’ll summarize the attached article for Carol’s sake, even though I take her comments about news articles personally

The All-American Canal nearly straddles the Mexican-US border. Lots of illegal immigrants drown while trying to cross it. The Imperial Irrigation District, which operates the canal, voted yesterday against installing “life lines” on the canal–ropes that cross the canal at periodic distances so that people caught up in the current can latch on to them and pull themselves to safety. You can read the horrifying justifications for what is essentially mass murder for yourself.

Tim

IID votes 4-1 against lifelines in All-American Imperial Valley Press – 6/12/01

By Kelly Grant, staff writer

The Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors voted 4-1 Monday against installing lifelines in the All-American Canal.

Much of the discussion at the special meeting revolved around a safety study on the proposed lifelines released last week.

The report by Gary Buffington of American Safety Consulting of Los Angeles concludes the ropes wouldn’t save lives and may actually bring more drownings by encouraging people to try crossing with a “false sense of security.”

As the discussion began, board President Andy Horne asked IID legal counsel Orlando Foote if the study’s existence would increase the district’s liability if it were to install lifelines.

Foote replied that yes, “the liability is possibly increased.”

Lifeline proponent John Hunter of San Diego was critical of the safety study.

“It’s a farce. I believe it was a political setup, “Hunter said.

“It allows you (the board) to conveniently backslide into the moral dilemma you were in in January,” Hunter said.

Hunter called Buffington, who was not at Monday’s meeting, “a hack who has no credentials in this area.”

Saying Buffington has no credentials in hydrology, Hunter questioned some of the report’s mathematic calculations.

Rob Fryer of Solana Beach also questioned the report. Fryer said Buffington assumes lifelines will attract more people to cross the All-American Canal but offers no evidence to back it.

“I don’t find the things in here (in the report) substantiated much,” Fryer said.

“He has made his major conclusion something that isn’t even in his purview,” Fryer said.

Horne also expressed displeasure with the report.

“It certainly was not satisfying or gratifying to read these conclusions,” Horne said.

Buffington writes in the report that Foote asked him to conduct a study examining Hunter’s lifeline proposal, its implementation and the possibility of alternatives. Foote asked Buffington to include his opinions concerning the project’s effectiveness.

IID Director Bruce Kuhn explained the liability the district would face if someone were to drown while using the lifelines precludes their installation.

“It’s a crappy place to find yourself,” Kuhn said.

“We can’t save human lives for fear of liability, “Kuhn added.

Director Stella Mendoza said her priority is IID’s liability. She corrected Hunter when he accused board members of killing immigrants.

“It’s not our fault,” Mendoza said.

Director Lloyd Allen said he has thought all along that lifelines “will induce people to come.”

Allen said he thought Hunter was unfair in blaming the directors for deaths in the All-American. The directors are doing what is in IID’s best interest, he said.

Hunter told the board he’d purchased insurance for the lifeline project four months ago.

Foote responded he had no documentation indicating IID was insured.

Kuhn made a motion to not proceed with the lifeline project “with absolute disgust in a legal system that allows this to happen,” he said.

“I cannot allow this to go forward because it puts the district at risk,” Kuhn said.

Mendoza seconded the motion “with a heavy heart,” she said.

In a roll call vote, all directors except Rudy Maldonado voted not to proceed with the lifeline project

IID Director’s Stella Mendoza and John Pierre Menvielle statements of July 29 defend the lack of safety features on the All-American Canal lining project. I will let others speak as follows:

Border Patrol Agent Chavez saved a young girl in the All-American in November 2003. Here is what happened:

“The victim rested several minutes inside a warm Border Patrol vehicle and upon recuperating stated that she was fine. At the Calexico Border Patrol Station she was given dry clothes and lunch. Agent Chavez recalled the incident by saying, ‘In the time between when I first saw her and swam to her, she had lost considerable strength and was almost too weak to hold onto the reeds, which was the only thing keeping her above water.’”

Stella and John Pierre having their way would eradicate all but a few handholds for anyone including the Border Patrol. Stella and John Pierre’s future drowning victims will undoubtedly include the following people:

1. Border Patrol agents who lay their lives on the line frequently and have heavy equipment including body armor. Try swimming with 50 lbs. of gear.

2. Mexican migrants like the young girl

3. IID workers (no directors of course, unless a golf course is nearby and they confuse the water hazards)

4. Tourists who recreate near the dunes

Directors Mendoza and Menvielle believe that the All-American Canal is an important barrier and should be kept lethal to migrants. I disagree. In the rest of the U.S.A., canals are purely for transporting water and every effort is made to make them safe for people and animals.

Mendoza: “Placing lifelines along the canal would give the people attempting to cross a false sense of security.” If we followed Stella’s advice we would eradicate hospitals since they give us a false sense of security. After Stella voted to eradicate the lifelines in 2001 there have been over 100 drownings in the All-American Canal. She is the remaining member of that Board whose vote sealed their horrific deaths and created the immense family tragedies. Here are a few of the over 100 victims’ names since 2001:

n Guadalupe De Olguin

n Pascual Sotero, buried at Terrace Park Potters Grave

n Abel Sotero (brother) buried next to Pascual

n Rosa Torres

n Peter Steinmetz buried near the brothers

n Over 100 others since 2001

Menvielle: “First of all, no one has any business swimming in the canal.” John Pierre is oblivious to IID workers and Border Patrol agents who must work near the All-American and Coachella. He ignores the recent drowning of a border patrol agent in the Coachella Canal and another agent in the All-American upstream of Drop 1. John Pierre is missing the point in his zeal to punish migrants.

In order to make the All American Canal lining project safer there are several simple fixes.

Fence it so no one can enter. (I can recommend five companies, none of which I own.)

Make the slope 5 degrees shallower and roughen the surface. (Not rocket science. I’ll supply the protractor and the broom.)

Install lifelines. (Yes, John Pierre, we might accidentally save some poor foreigners.)

More frequent climb-outs. (750 feet is a long way to swim at night with no moon.)

Since 2001 over 100 innocent people drowned in the All-American and the Coachella canals. The All-American Canal is easy to fix and so is retrofitting the Coachella. My brother Duncan’s letter was right on target.

I recommend public hearings on All-American Canal safety as soon as possible.

John Hunter is an advocate for immigrant rights who lives in San Diego.

The decision to line a canal crossed by many illegal immigrants in the Imperial Valley is drawing fire over potential for more drownings.

By Alison Williams
Los Angeles Times Page A1
July 15, 2007

Holtville, Calif. – At the far end of the Terrace Park Cemetery, between the grassy field of flower-dotted gravestones and a makeshift dump, lie rows of numbered bricks in the dirt, some with names and some that read “John Doe.” Among those buried here, mostly illegal immigrants, are at least 40 who drowned in the nearby All American Canal.

The 82-mile canal that carries water west from the Colorado River to the Imperial Valley has claimed the lives of more than 500 people since 1942, including almost 180 in the last 10 years. It’s about to get more treacherous.

About 23 miles of the canal are being lined with concrete to conserve water by preventing it from seeping into the ground. When the lining is complete, water will flow faster and the canal sides will be steeper, slicker and harder to scale. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation began work in June.

The original 1994 plan for the lining project called for “large mammal escape ridges,” or steps, to make it easier for both humans and animals to get out of the water. But the Bureau of Reclamation no longer intends to include escape ridges, saying they cause structural instability and leakage.

Critics of the lining say it is illegal to drop the safety provisions. And they say there are reasons, not stated in the official record, why the escape ridges aren’t being included. The canal, which is operated by the Imperial Irrigation District, runs parallel to the Mexican border – less than a mile from it in places – and is a long barrier to people trying to make their way north.

“If the IID’s kids were playing in the canal, I assure you they would put those ridges in,” said John Hunter of Poway, in San Diego County. He is founder of Water Station, an organization that provides water in the desert for migrants. Hunter said that, at the very least, the bureau should roughen the surface of the concrete lining, as was done with the Central Arizona Project, a long canal that takes water from the Colorado River east to Phoenix and Tucson.

Hunter’s views are shared by his brother, congressman and Republican presidential hopeful Duncan Hunter of El Cajon. Although he takes a hard line against illegal immigration, Duncan Hunter wrote a letter last month to officials in charge of the canal advocating the safety ridges. He wrote that “the loss of human life in the canal to date has been a costly consequence to past indifference.”

Lining the earthen canal will provide California more water at a time when the state has been ordered to reduce its take from the Colorado River. The unlined canal has been losing millions of gallons a year to seepage. But that water has been flowing underground to Mexico, where it has sustained wetlands and been used by farmers since the early 1940s. When that supply dries up, critics of the lining project, including Mexican President Felipe Calderon, warn that fields will be fallowed, possibly prompting even more unemployed Mexicans to risk crossing the border and the canal.

“The lining ignores the serious environmental, safety or economic consequences to the region,” said Malissa Hathaway McKeith, a Los Angeles lawyer and Colorado River water expert who represented an alliance of Mexican business and environmental interests opposed to the lining.

The All American Canal is surrounded by desert, soft sand dotted with a few shrubs and virtually no shade. The temperature in the summer routinely hits 115 degrees. Most people attempt to cross the 175-foot-wide canal at night. Some use flimsy rafts. Many of the victims have died in the section of the canal that is to be lined.

Drowning victims who can be identified and claimed by family members are returned to their home countries – primarily Mexico. The others are buried in the potter’s field at the rear of the Terrace Park Cemetery.

Bureau of Reclamation officials say they will reduce the risk of drowning by installing ladders along the lined portion of the All American at 375–foot intervals on both sides of the canal. Jim Cherry, the bureau’s Yuma, Ariz., area manager, said, “I believe these ladders will make the canal more safe. Right now, there is no way for people in the water to get out. My concern as an operator is that those ridges would become full of algae – I’d much rather have a ladder to grab on to.”

But ladders were of no help to U.S. Border Patrol agent Richard Goldstein, who drowned in May in the nearby Coachella Canal, which was completely lined and fitted with ladders by 2006. Authorities believe Goldstein had gone into the water to rescue his dog, which was found wet but alive next to Goldstein’s vehicle.

The Coachella Canal claims about one person a year. But that canal, which joins the All American near Yuma, runs at a northwesterly angle toward the Coachella Valley and isn’t a barrier to most migrants.

However, wildlife casualties in the Coachella have been higher. More than 170 deer drowned in the canal within the first few years after part of it was lined in the 1980s, according to Leon Lesicka, founder of Desert Wildlife Unlimited. Lesicka said animal mortality dropped after California Department of Fish and Game and other organizations, including his, helped finance and install wildlife drinking stations near the canal.

Last year, the bureau said such “off site mitigation” would be considered as part of the All American lining project if surveys found evidence of deer in the area. But that only further provoked critics of the project.

“I used to work there. We’ve never pulled out a deer, bobcat, raccoon – it was human bodies. It is tragic,” said Rudy Maldonado, a former board member and employee of the Imperial Irrigation District.

“Every one of God’s species, mammals, what have you, deserves the right to live and shouldn’t die ů of thirst or in trying to better themselves,” said Mike Abatti, an Imperial Valley farmer and a recently elected Imperial Irrigation District board member.

Calls for safety measures date back at least to 1991, when the chief patrol agent in the U.S. Border Patrol’s El Centro sector, which covers 41 miles of the All American, sent a letter to the bureau in favor of using escape ridges to make the canal as safe as possible for law enforcement agents and “Mexican nationals.”

Last week, Border Patrol spokesman Quinn Palmer said that neither he nor his superiors were aware of the letter, but he added, “Generally, we’re going to be in favor of anything that promotes public safety.”

A 1994 joint study of canal drownings by state and federal public health officials stated, “In the future, drownings of illegal entrants are likely to increase. Most crossed the All American Canal, and their rate of drowning increased as the water’s velocity increasedů. Lining a canal decreases the drag on the water and increases the average water velocity.” The study listed safety measures that could be taken, including building steps into the canal sides.

John Hunter has been pushing unsuccessfully for additional safety measures for several years, bringing the issue to the attention of the irrigation district board in 2001. At that time the panel voted down a proposal to put lifelines across the canal, citing a risk of liability if the lines failed to save lives.

Earlier this month, irrigation district spokesman Kevin Kelley said that the Bureau of Reclamation had final say over whether to install safety ridges and that the district did not have the authority to demand additional safety measures.

The San Diego County Water Authority and California Department of Water Resources are sharing the $290-million cost of the lining, and San Diego will receive most of the water that is conserved.

Halla Razak, Colorado River program manager for the San Diego water authority, echoed the irrigation district that the issue of the ridges was a bureau decision, but added, “We have put in whatever is required for safety. It is against the law to be in the canal.”

The lining project has long been a sore spot for farmers like Abatti in the Imperial Valley who have benefited from some of the seepage. Abatti and his brother sued unsuccessfully to stop the lining.

“This project gives no benefits to Imperial Valley,” Abatti said recently. “If we have no benefits to this lining, we ought to at least make it safe.”