Coachella Valley Water District filed a protest with the State Water Resources Control Board today concerning the proposed transfer of Colorado River Water from Imperial Irrigation District to San Diego County Water Authority. The protest, though, was largely a placeholder to meet legal time constraints as historic negotiations over distribution of Colorado River water by Southern California water agencies have succeeded Friday in Keystone, Colo., after years of efforts.

Coachella Valley Water District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and Imperial Irrigation District, San Diego County Water Authority and the California Department of Water Resources are formalizing language for the details worked out Friday. The boards of the various local water agencies are expected to act within the next few weeks by directing the negotiators to finalize the documents and obtain input from the public.

San Diego and Imperial agreed to let Coachella add detail to its protest to the state board in the unlikely event that the agreement is not finalized.

"While it may take some time to work out exact language dealing with some issues, unless one of the other agencies changes its position significantly we have a deal," Tom Levy, CVWD general manager-chief engineer, said.

Negotiators for the four Southern California water agencies and the federal and state governments reached an agreement last month after marathon negotiations that ended at 3 a.m. Aug. 4, but immediately all sides began fleshing out and adding details which led to the further negotiations that ended Friday.

At that time, they established Sept. 14 as a deadline to work out the details and take the plan to the water agency boards. When it became apparent that they were drifting farther apart in telephone negotiating sessions, they extended the deadline for a week so they could meet again in person.

The primary goal of the agreement was to allow the implementation of the California 4.4 Plan which would ultimately reduce California’s use of Colorado River water to the state’s basic entitlement. The plan includes allowing Imperial to transfer to San Diego 200,000 acre-feet of water annually by conserving water.

Talks between the water agencies were facilitated by representatives of the Department of the Interior and the California Department of Water Resources.

CVWD’s goal in the negotiations, according to Levy, was to secure a firm water supply to handle current demands for agricultural and groundwater uses.

IID offered 330,000 acre-feet at no cost as Coachella’s share with IID taking 3.1 million acre-feet from the river and additional amounts at a negotiated price.