California Mojave Desert Town of 1,700 People Could Be Left Dry in Water War
Although the chemical plant has tried to make it sound like the residential water supply could be cut off, this is just misinformation they've made up to scare people living in Searles Valley. Water rates are likely to increase, possibly drastically, but no one is suggesting that residential water be cut off. That's just a scare tactic being used by the chemical plant to get people to complain and make a scene. The truth is that the plant just got a huge gift in the form of royalty reductions. The plant was paying 6% to the local school and the BLM and now it only has to pay 2%. That should save the plant over $5 million per year. The extra it will pay for the water replenishment fee will probably be not much more than that. So, the plant will do just fine unless the increased amount they have to pay per year reaches something over $20 million per year, which is not likely. Lots of doom and gloom, but in reality funds were just shuffled around a little.
https://www.newsweek.com/california-mojave-desert-town-1700-people-could-left-dry-water-war-1632055