[env-trinity] http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Farmers-lose-San-Luis-Dam-water-suit-4327174.php

[Tom Stokely]

Farmers lose San Luis Dam water suit
Bob Egelko
Published 1:31 pm, Monday, March 4, 2013
1
inShare
Comments (0)
Larger | Smaller
Printable Version
Email This
Font
(03-04) 13:28 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Central Valley farmers whose water allotments from the San Luis Dam have been reduced can't require the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to provide more water for irrigation at the expense of fish and wildlife, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

A 2009 lawsuit by owners of 18 farms argued that the bureau's redistribution of Central Valley Project reclamation water violated a 1960 law that authorized construction of the huge dam and reservoir near Pacheco Pass and declared that its "principal purpose" was to supply water for irrigation.

Upholding a federal judge's dismissal of the suit, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said the law allows the Bureau of Reclamation to decide how to operate the Central Valley Project and allocate its water.

"Although the farmers contend that the CVP is designed to promote irrigation over the protection of fish and wildlife, Congress decided otherwise," said Judge Stephen Trott in the 3-0 ruling.

The case is part of a broader battle among farming and fishing interests, environmentalists, and state and federal agencies over water allotments from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

In a separate case, U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger of Fresno found in 2010 that the federal government had failed to justify a 7 percent reduction in water supplies to farmers and residential communities in order to protect fish species. The decision required an increase in the pumping of water through the delta.

It was also Wanger whose dismissal of the farmers' suit over San Luis water supplies was upheld Friday. William Smiland, a lawyer for the farmers, said their irrigation allotments have been gradually reduced since the early 1990s and are 10 percent of the amount they should receive.

Contending the ruling contradicts the intent of the 1960 law and other statutes, Smiland said, "It takes Congress out of the federal reclamation program and gives total discretion to an administrative agency."

The court, however, said nothing in the law entitled the farmers to the amount of water they had received in the past, or to any other specific amount.

The ruling can be viewed at 1.usa.gov/XsHHBP.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: begelko at sfchronicle.com



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Farmers-lose-San-Luis-Dam-water-suit-4327174.php#ixzz2MhDAbLeA
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20130305/ccbe1d8d/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: tools_comments.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 119 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20130305/ccbe1d8d/attachment.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: tools_size.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 155 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20130305/ccbe1d8d/attachment-0001.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: tools_print.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 125 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20130305/ccbe1d8d/attachment-0002.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: tools_mail.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 115 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20130305/ccbe1d8d/attachment-0003.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: tools_dropdown.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 135 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20130305/ccbe1d8d/attachment-0004.gif>