SAN DIEGO-
An appeals court has ruled that the federal government can line a major canal that draws water from the Colorado River with concrete to stop huge leaks.
The court rejected arguments that growers across the border in Mexico need the leaking water for their crops.
Proponents of lining the All-American Canal say it would save 67,000 acre-feet of water, enough to meet the needs of more than 500,000 homes in fast-growing San Diego County.
Opponents, who sued to block the project, said it would devastate farmers in the Mexicali Valley.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of a law signed by President Bush last year that orders the Bureau of Reclamation to start the project without delay.
The court’s ruling lifts an injunction granted last year when opponents sued.
The 82-mile-long canal was completed in 1942 to carry water west from the Colorado River. It irrigates crops along both sides of the border in an area about 100 miles east of San Diego.
