SAN DIEGO -- With miles of agriculture, Imperial County is the salad bowl of Southern California. But to San Diego the water is even more valuable than the produce it helps grow.

San Diego has offered Imperial County growers a $50 million a year contract to sell 65 billion gallons a year.

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Imperial County Farmers Offered $50 Million For Water

At the County Water Authority, board members told 10News that the water deal would supply half to a third of San Diego's future water needs.

Farmers in Imperial County might be willing to sell their excess water or let some of their land go dry in order to ship the water to San Diego.

But, if the farmers stop growing food, what happens to the workers in the packing houses of Imperial County, the truckers, and the people who sell the tractors and the farm equipment?

The Water Authority commissioned a survey to ask the people of Imperial County what they think of the deal. The survey was paid for with taxpayer money -- $23,000 worth -- but Daniel Hentschke, the Water Authority's attorney, told 10News that the survey's results will not be made public.

"Management has made a decision and I'm ethically bound not to give it to you," he said.

The Water Authority is even keeping the results a secret from the Authority's own board members.

"They won't tell us," said County Water Authority board member Howard Williams. He suspects the survey results show the people of Imperial County are adamantly against the water transfer.

Environmentalists said this deal would cause the Salton Sea to dry up killing millions of migratory birds creating an evironmental disaster. The Salton Sea is shrinking even now, and without the excess water from farm fields it will dry up even faster becoming saltier and more polluted.

10News attornies are filing a California Public Records Act request with the Water Authority, the first step in challenging their decision.

The next Water Authority Board meeting is this Thursday.