What oversight should there be on pipelines that cross federal lands via railroad right-of-ways? While the Trump administration says none, according to the National Parks Conservation Association, the park advocacy group says those projects shouldn't fly beneath oversight. And so NPCA has gone to court to block an Interior Department decision to allow a pipeline project to cross Mojave Trails National Monument.

The lawsuit filed this week in the District of Columbia charges that Interior Department officials have instituted a policy that "illegally green-lighted the construction and operation of a pipeline across federal lands without a permit or environmental review." At issue is a "water mining project" by Cadiz Inc. that NPCA staff believe "threatens fragile springs, wildlife and water resources in Mojave Trails National Monument and Mojave National Preserve."

“National Parks Conservation Association has fought the ill-advised Cadiz Inc. proposal for two decades, and we won’t let up now. As the Trump administration attempts to advance this proposal, our resolve is only strengthened to continue to defend our national parks and public lands,” said Theresa Pierno, NPCA's president and CEO. “The Department of Interior has silenced science by illegally blocking federal environmental review of this harmful California desert project. Since the Interior Department has disregarded its obligation to protect California’s groundwater and iconic national parks and the tourism economies they support, we must step in and defend these fragile, special places.”

The lawsuit challenges a Department of Interior Solicitor’s 2017 opinion that removed federal oversight of projects using certain railroad rights-of-way, allowing developers to evade required federal review for projects that could impact national parks and other public lands, pointed out an NPCA release.

"This illegal action has blocked scientists from the National Park Service and U.S. Geological Survey from reviewing and regulating the Cadiz project, as required by law," the release added. "Federal scientists have previously found that Cadiz Inc. would extract up to 25 times more groundwater than is naturally recharged, severely damaging resources throughout the Mojave Desert."

The lawsuit also challenges the BLM’s application of the new policy, through a 2017 determination, that the construction and operation of a 43-mile long water conveyance pipeline within the Mojave Trails National Monument may proceed without a Federal Land Policy and Management Act permit. The new policy also enables Cadiz Inc. to avoid complying with federal environmental review requirements pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act, according to NPCA.

The project, which aims to pump 16 billion gallons of water annually for 50 years from fragile Mojave Desert aquifers, was listed on the Trump transition team’s “Emergency & National Security” infrastructure priority list, NPCA said.

Polling released earlier this year by the Hispanic Access Foundation found that more than two-thirds of California voters agree the Cadiz project will harm the national park and monument, said NPCA.