[env-trinity] High court takes up big delta water case

[Tom Stokely]

High court takes up big delta water case

San Francisco Chronicle - 1/26/06

By Bob Egelko, staff writer

 

The state Supreme Court took up one of its biggest water cases in years Wednesday, agreeing to decide whether a state-federal water agency considered effects on water supplies and the environment in its planned shipments from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to Southern California. 

 

The justices granted a hearing to the state on behalf of the state-federal agency known as CalFed, which has the task of protecting water quality in the delta and San Francisco Bay while overseeing increased exports of water to cities and farms in southern California. 

 

A state appeals court ruled in October that CalFed's environmental study of its plan, conducted in 2000, failed to consider the option of reduced water pumping to protect the delta, and also failed to show that enough water was available to meet the project's needs. 

 

That ruling, a victory for an unusual alliance of Central Valley farm groups and environmentalists, would require CalFed to conduct a new environmental study. But the ruling was nullified, at least for now, by the state Supreme Court's decision to accept the case. 

 

The Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District and other Southern California water users joined the state in seeking Supreme Court review.  #

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/26/BABADIGEST2.DTL&hw=water&sn=004&sc=1000
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