Toni Atkins and a pilot well on Cadiz Inc. property in the Mojave Desert

Cadiz, the controversial Mojave Desert water-mining outfit, came up with $4400 for the 2020 reelection campaign of Democratic state senate pro tem Toni Atkins on December 29, per recent disclosure filings, and Cadiz CFO Tim Shaheen kicked in $1000 the same day.

“Nearly all environmentalists concerned with the project warn of direct and devastating impacts to the regional watershed if Cadiz Inc. goes forward with pumping based on their own recharge assumptions,” says a February 5 post by Los Angeles public TV station KCET. “A 2017 bill in the California State Legislature would have required the project to be reviewed by the State Lands Commission and Department of Fish and Wildlife, but never made it out of committee.”

Atkins isn’t the only powerful politico financially backed by Cadiz, the report notes. “Several affluent California State Democrats, including former Governor Gray Davis, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and others, have in the past received substantial campaign contributions from the company.”