[env-trinity] ACWA News- Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority Plans to Appeal Area-of-Origin Ruling

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.acwa.com/news/legal-affairs-committee/tehama-colusa-canal-authority-plans-appeal-area-origin-ruling 
Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority Plans to Appeal Area-of-Origin Ruling
Submitted by Sarah Langford on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 2:44pm in Legal Affairs CommitteeWater News

A northern California water district announced today it plans to appeal the decision of a federal district court in an area-of-origin water rights case.

In August, Judge Oliver Wanger ruled in a suit filed by Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority that Central Valley Project contractors in the Sacramento Valley are not entitled to a priority of water allocations in dry years over exports to water contractors located south of the Delta.

TCCA, with landowners in Tehama, Glenn, Colusa, and Yolo counties, argued that its water users should have priority in dry years over federal water contractors south of the Delta based on the state’s area-of-origin water rights rules.

In 10 of the past 33 years, TCCA has received less than its full water contract, causing shortages on the 150,000 acres of land it services.

A 2006 a water case dubbed "the Roby decision,” in which California appellate Judge Ronald Roby ruled that the federal Bureau of Reclamation was required to follow state rules, served as the basis for TCCA’s recent lawsuit.

But the two cases were not identical, and in his 88-page decision, Wanger upheld arguments made by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and San Joaquin Valley CVP contractors.

In a statement, TCCA Board President Ken LaGrande said he believes there are “significant grounds for an appeal” and that his agency is confident the recent ruling would be overturned.

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