In the early 1980s, a hydrogeologist named Mark Liggett was examining satellite imagery from NASA when he discovered the signs of a large aquifer under the Mojave Desert just outside of Cadiz, California. In 1983, the existence of the aquifer was confirmed and Cadiz’s mission began.

In the early ‘90s, Cadiz secured the first permits and approvals to capture groundwater before it is lost to evaporation and put it to beneficial use for agriculture. Cadiz began sustainable farming 9,600 acres in the arid Cadiz Valley, growing a variety of crops including lemons, alfalfa and hemp. In 1998, Cadiz began an environmental review and permitting process to authorize the use of the Cadiz aquifer as a groundwater storage bank to store surplus water from the Colorado River, which began the Cadiz Water Project. In 2008, we purchased a 99-year lease of land along the California-Arizona Railroad to build a 43-mile water pipeline that connects our groundwater storage bank to the Colorado River Aqueduct. In 2011 we purchased the first stretch of a 220-mile pipeline from El Paso Natural Gas and completed purchase of the entire pipeline in 2020. The pipeline stretches from Cadiz to Bakersfield, California. We are currently in the process of converting the pipeline for transportation of water. This is the first known project converting a fossil fuel pipeline to transport water. In 2022 we acquired ATEC Systems, a water filtration technology company, which will allow Cadiz to bring scalable, low-cost filtration to local water supplies.

We’re proud of our long history of water conservation, strategic groundwater management and delivering innovative private sector solutions to climate-related water challenges. Cadiz has been practicing cutting edge conservation of land and water resources for 40 years and we’re proud to make it our mission to make the human right to water a sustainably reality for all.