The 43-mile pipeline was approved after former Cadiz lobbyist David Bernhardt became deputy secretary of the Interior. : A federal court has ruled that an environmental review exemption by the Trump administration for a pipeline to extract water from the Mojave Desert is illegal. The 43-mile pipeline planned by Cadiz Inc. would cut through Mojave Trails National Monument and other public lands in southern California to suck ground water out of the desert aquifer and sell to cities. It would pump an estimated 16 billion gallons a year from the fragile desert ecosystem.