[env-trinity] PCFFA and HVT Press Releases on Westlands Water District v All Persons Interested in the Matter

[Tom Stokely]

Attached is the Hoopa Press Release calling on the federal government to collect all the cost obligations under the contract including restoration and mitigation costs to fish and wildlife. 
 
  
 
This in from AP
 California judge rejects water deal for major farm supplier - The San Diego Union-Tribune (sandiegouniontribune.com)
  PCFFA applauds Judge's ruling that Westlands Water District’s proposed massive federal contract for water from the Central Valley Project is invalid  
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|  October 28, 2021 
PCFFA STATEMENT ON COURT RULING THAT 
REJECTS WESTLANDS’ PERMANENT FEDERAL WATER CONTRACT
San Francisco, CA – Thursday, October 28, 2021.  Today, Fresno, Judge D. Tyler Tharpe rejected Westlands Water District’s proposed massive federal contract for water from the Central Valley Project that would have allocated roughly double the amount of water that Los Angeles residents use in a year.   The largest federal irrigation contractor in the nation, Westlands, was found by the Court to have misled the court and the public.  In rejecting the contract, the Judge ruled that the unfinished and incomplete contract lacked key financial terms and proper public notice and thus, could not be validated, stating:

“…the [Westlands] Board’s decision nevertheless could not be properly validated because it had sought to validate an incomplete, uncertain proposed contract. (March 16, 2020 Order, pp. 4-5.) Judge Simpson also found that the Board had failed to meet its burden of showing that it complied with the Brown Act before it adopted the resolution to approve the contract. (Id. at pp. 5-6)

Therefore, as the court has already found that the Board’s decision to approve and execute the contract was not the proper subject of a validation action, it cannot now grant validation as to any portion of the Board’s decision. As a result, the court intends to deny the renewed motion for a validation judgment, in its entirety. See pg 6 of Tentative Ruling in Westlands Water District v All Persons Interested in the Matter Case No. 19CECG03887.

Federal law requires state courts to ensure public review of contracts between water districts and the Bureau of Reclamation. Without a decree from the Fresno court, the contract does not bind Reclamation to the contract terms and fails to comply with federal law.  .

“This is a victory for the rule of law, fishery protections and the public’s water supplies, said Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Executive Director Mike Conroy, who along with others filed suit.  “Westlands hid the ball from the public and rushed this contract through to get a sweetheart deal from their former lobbyist David Bernhardt whose Interior Ddepartment put in the fix to try to escape more than $400 million in fish and wildlife mitigation costs owed.”

In October 2019, Westlands, without a final contract, lacking financial terms, and lack of public notice attempted to sneak their permanent water contract through the Fresno Courts.  Fishing, conservation, Tribal, water agencies and counties from where the water is being taken filed suit to block the validation of this contract.

This is an important victory for efforts by PCFFA and salmon-dependent industries to keep even more water from being withdrawn from the San Francisco Bay Delta to feed insatiable water demands from Westlands and other big, corporate agribusiness interests depending on the already highly subsidized federal irrigation water system that makes up the Central Valley Project (CVP).  The California water supply has been notoriously over-appropriated for decades, leading to massive losses of native salmon from California’s central valley rivers, and major economic declines for the industry and hard-working commercial fishing families that PCFFA represents.  Under the proposed contract, California State agencies would be denied millions of program dollars.  Now, a revised and redrafted water supply contract will be required to ensure those dollars be protected
We agree with our past officer Larry Collins, from San Francisco based Crab Boat Owners Association, “The Administration needs to rescind these federal contracts, collect the $400 million and ensure compliance with financial obligations under Reclamation law as well as environmental protection laws.  Reclamation should stop allowing the abuse of this precious public resource and Westlands along with other CVP contractors to sneak around the rules.”
 
By statute Westlands and other Central Valley Project (CVP) contractors are required to pay all their obligations to the taxpayer to get this publicly subsidized water.  Among the missing contract terms are repayment of $400 million in costs owed by these contractors for environmental restoration of the damage caused by 80 years of federal Valley Project water and power extraction. In the 1992, Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA), Congress made environmental restoration a CVP purpose; and payment for restoration a cost of doing business for the contractors. Without cost collection from the contractors, the required restoration will likely fail. The contract fails to ensure collection of all the costs for future operations and damages to fish and wildlife.





 


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