<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"><head><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><o:OfficeDocumentSettings><o:AllowPNG/><o:PixelsPerInch>96</o:PixelsPerInch></o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--></head><body><div class="ydp37f0895eyahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:garamond, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px;"><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><span style="font-size:20.0pt;font-family:Helvetica Neue;color:#272c3f">Calif. farmers lose big irrigation drainage 'takings' claim</span>
<div><div><div class="ydpad50dd7fii ydpad50dd7fgt"><div class="ydpad50dd7fa3s ydpad50dd7faiL ydpad50dd7fmsg7836129593445075541"><div lang="EN-US"><div class="ydpad50dd7fm_7836129593445075541WordSection1"><p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Helvetica Neue;color:#6a6e71;letter-spacing:-.2pt">Farmers said the federal government should compensate them for failing to build drainage from their farms.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Helvetica Neue;color:#6e7381;text-transform:uppercase"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto;"><span class="ydpad50dd7fm_7836129593445075541pretext"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Helvetica Neue;color:#6e7381;text-transform:uppercase">BY: </span></span><span class="ydpad50dd7fm_7836129593445075541authorname"><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica Neue;color:black;text-transform:uppercase">MICHAEL
DOYLE</span></b></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Helvetica Neue;color:#6e7381;text-transform:uppercase"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Helvetica Neue;color:#6e7381;text-transform:uppercase"> | 05/25/2023 03:40 PM EDT</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Helvetica Neue;color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fm_7836129593445075541caption" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto;"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:#292929">The
sun sets over a human-made wetland at the San Luis National Wildlife
Refuge near Gustine, Calif., on Feb. 2, 2007.Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP
Photo<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto;">
<b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">E&E NEWS PM |</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black"> A federal court has uprooted a bid by farmers in California’s San Joaquin Valley to secure
compensation for the federal government’s environmentally disastrous and decades long failure to provide irrigation drainage.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">In
the latest round of a generation-spanning dispute, the U.S. Court of
Federal Claims dismissed a lawsuit filed by farmers who contend the
government’s failure to build the promised drainage
amounts to an <a href="https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2020/08/31/farmers-calif-drainage-project-violates-constitution-011398" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2020/08/31/farmers-calif-drainage-project-violates-constitution-011398&source=gmail&ust=1685137905579000&usg=AOvVaw32vkBunHfNx9c2WsT38zwh" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color:#007bc7">uncompensated taking of their property</span></a>.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto;">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">“Although
the Court is sympathetic to the damage to Plaintiffs’ lands caused by
the United States’ failure to fulfill its statutory drainage obligation,
it cannot allow this case, which
is clearly beyond the Court’s jurisdiction, to proceed,” Court of
Federal Claims Judge Zachary Somers wrote.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">Somers' <a href="https://ecf.cofc.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2011cv0564-168-0" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ecf.cofc.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2011cv0564-168-0&source=gmail&ust=1685137905579000&usg=AOvVaw0oY91qlPiMeTxmy-ETXP3h" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color:#007bc7">May 19 ruling</span></a> to end the farmers’ lawsuit
first filed in 2011 turned on a timing issue, as he concluded the claims’ filing fell outside the statute of limitations.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">An attorney for the farmers declined to comment on the ruling Thursday.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">The
underlying problem, meanwhile, remains as pressing as ever. The federal
government is still on the hook for providing drainage to the farms,
notably those in the Rhode Island-sized Westlands
Water District, which are served by the massive Central Valley Project.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">Underneath
Westlands' highly productive crop fields is a dense clay layer that
prevents irrigation water from draining. Eventually, contaminants like
selenium accumulate.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">When
Congress authorized in 1960 part of the CVP that serves the San Joaquin
Valley, lawmakers recognized the issue and included drainage as a
fundamental part of the overall project. The
Bureau of Reclamation proposed a 188-mile drain ending in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">But
only about 87 miles of drainage were built, leading to a lethal,
bird-deforming toxic soup at the drain’s premature terminus at Kesterson
National Wildlife Refuge, which is now a unit
of the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">“Despite
a plethora of studies, numerous attempts at concocting various plans,
and extensive litigation, the drainage infrastructure has still, to
date, not been completed,” noted Somers,
a Trump administration appointee.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">In
2000, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Reclamation was
still responsible for the drainage. Estimates initially pegged the
drainage construction costs at about $2.7 billion;
the estimated price tag has since reached upward of $3.7 billion.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">Negotiation
talks between Reclamation and Westlands culminated during the Obama
administration with a proposed 2015 settlement agreement. Under the
deal, Westlands would provide the drainage,
but its remaining debt to the government for the construction of the
CVP — more than $250 million — would be forgiven, The district would
also retire acreage, under the deal.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">This deal <a href="https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2019/05/01/calif-drainage-deal-sinks-into-doldrums-029631" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2019/05/01/calif-drainage-deal-sinks-into-doldrums-029631&source=gmail&ust=1685137905579000&usg=AOvVaw3h42o5X8MWw_sN2iKisdQ0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" class="enhancr_card_5797959405"><span style="color:#007bc7">requires congressional
action</span></a>, and though House bills have been previously introduced by Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.), they have stalled.<u></u><u></u></span></p><div><br></div><div id="ydpbd0811c2enhancr_card_5797959405" class="ydpbd0811c2yahoo-link-enhancr-card ydpbd0811c2ymail-preserve-class ydpbd0811c2ymail-preserve-style" style="max-width:400px;font-family:YahooSans, Helvetica Neue, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" data-url="https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2019/05/01/calif-drainage-deal-sinks-into-doldrums-029631" data-type="YENHANCER" data-size="MEDIUM" contenteditable="false"><a href="https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2019/05/01/calif-drainage-deal-sinks-into-doldrums-029631" style="text-decoration-line: none !important; text-decoration-style: solid !important; text-decoration-color: currentcolor !important; color: rgb(0, 0, 0) !important;" class="ydpbd0811c2yahoo-enhancr-cardlink" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><table class="ydpbd0811c2card-wrapper ydpbd0811c2yahoo-ignore-table" style="max-width:400px" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tbody><tr><td width="400"><table class="ydpbd0811c2card ydpbd0811c2yahoo-ignore-table" style="max-width:400px;border-width:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(224, 228, 233);border-radius:2px" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tbody><tr><td class="ydpbd0811c2card-primary-image-cell" style="background-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: cover; position: relative; border-radius: 2px 2px 0px 0px; min-height: 175px;" valign="top" height="175" bgcolor="#000000" background="https://s.yimg.com/lo/api/res/1.2/2I9fe37CkdMu1Wx0oxGf3g--~A/Zmk9ZmlsbDt3PTQwMDtoPTIwMDthcHBpZD1pZXh0cmFjdA--/https://static.politico.com/01/fb/0768b60f4611a515486798bd2944/360c1052aa564ccf92b4a6513b78beae.jpeg.cf.jpg"><!--[if gte mso 9]><v:rect fill="true" stroke="false" style="width:396px;height:175px;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;"><v:fill type="frame" color="#000000" src="https://s.yimg.com/lo/api/res/1.2/2I9fe37CkdMu1Wx0oxGf3g--~A/Zmk9ZmlsbDt3PTQwMDtoPTIwMDthcHBpZD1pZXh0cmFjdA--/https://static.politico.com/01/fb/0768b60f4611a515486798bd2944/360c1052aa564ccf92b4a6513b78beae.jpeg.cf.jpg"/></v:rect><![endif]--><table class="ydpbd0811c2card-overlay-container-table ydpbd0811c2yahoo-ignore-table" style="width:100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tbody><tr><td class="ydpbd0811c2card-overlay-cell" style="background-color: transparent; border-radius: 2px 2px 0px 0px; min-height: 175px;" valign="top" bgcolor="transparent" background="https://s.yimg.com/cv/ae/nq/storm/assets/enhancrV21/1/enhancr_gradient-400x175.png"><!--[if gte mso 9]><v:rect fill="true" stroke="false" style="width:396px;height:175px;position:absolute;top:-18px;left:0;"><v:fill type="pattern" color="#000000" src="https://s.yimg.com/cv/ae/nq/storm/assets/enhancrV21/1/enhancr_gradient-400x175.png"/><v:textbox inset="0,0,20px,0"><![endif]--><table class="ydpbd0811c2yahoo-ignore-table" style="width: 100%; min-height: 175px;" height="175" border="0"><tbody><tr><td class="ydpbd0811c2card-richInfo2" style="text-align:left;padding:15px 0 0 15px;vertical-align:top"></td><td class="ydpbd0811c2card-actions" style="text-align:right;padding:15px 15px 0 0;vertical-align:top"><div class="ydpbd0811c2card-share-container"></div></td></tr></tbody></table><!--[if gte mso 9]></v:textbox></v:rect><![endif]--></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr><td><table class="ydpbd0811c2card-info ydpbd0811c2yahoo-ignore-table" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto; position: relative; z-index: 2; width: 100%; max-width: 400px; border-radius: 0px 0px 2px 2px; border-top: 1px solid rgb(224, 228, 233);" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" align="center"><tbody><tr><td style="background-color:#ffffff;padding:16px 0 16px 12px;vertical-align:top;border-radius:0 0 0 2px"></td><td style="vertical-align:middle;padding:12px 24px 16px 12px;width:99%;font-family:YahooSans, Helvetica Neue, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;border-radius:0 0 2px 0"><h2 class="ydpbd0811c2card-title" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px 0px 6px; font-family: YahooSans, Helvetica Neue, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(29, 34, 40); max-width: 314px;">E&E News: Calif. drainage deal sinks into doldrums</h2><p class="ydpbd0811c2card-description" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; color: rgb(151, 158, 168);"><p>An ambitious irrigation drainage deal is mired deeper than ever in legislative and legal limbo, alarming farm...</p></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></a></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><p></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">Some
environmentalists and lawmakers — including Rep. Jared Huffman, the
California Democrat who is the ranking member on the House Natural
Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and
Fisheries — have denounced the proposed settlement as a giveaway to
politically powerful farmers.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">“We
need to know that the Westlands Water District didn’t get a sweetheart
deal, and that the federal government is working to protect Americans’
financial and environmental interests,”
Huffman said during an earlier debate.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">Democratic
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California once tried to lead negotiations on a
final irrigation drainage deal, convening stakeholders for closed-door
sessions in her Senate office,
but they bore no fruit. No one else has since taken up the challenging
task of getting the parties together.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">A
previous ruling by another Court of Federal Claims judge had given the
lead plaintiff, Michael Etchegoinberry, and other farmers a green light
to pursue their so-called takings case.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">In
the new ruling, though, Somers concluded that the federal government’s
failure to act on the drainage, which was the alleged cause of harm to
the farmers, occurred more than six years
before the suit was filed.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">Citing
the “numerous other events that occurred in the long saga of whether
the United States was going to provide drainage to the San Luis Unit,”
Somers stated that the farmers “were not
permitted to put their heads in the sand allowing the statute of
limitations to run and then pop them up and run to court” simply when
they wanted to.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">“Despite
never receiving drainage to their properties and the fact that no
property within Westlands has received drainage since 1986, Plaintiffs
still assert that their claims did not stabilize
until [2010],” Somers wrote, adding that he “cannot concur” with the
farmers’ reasoning.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="ydpad50dd7fMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-size: auto; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">“Simply
put, numerous actions and decisions by the United States related to
drainage in the San Luis Unit and litigation brought by multiple parties
related to drainage over several decades,
including litigation alleging the very taking at issue here … should
have alerted Plaintiffs to the [timing],” Somers wrote.</span></p></div></div></div></div></div><table class="ydpad50dd7fcf ydpad50dd7fgJ yahoo-compose-table-card" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr class="ydpad50dd7facZ"><td class="ydpad50dd7fgF ydpad50dd7fgK"><table class="ydpad50dd7fcf ydpad50dd7fix yahoo-compose-table-card" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td class="ydpad50dd7fc2"><br></td></tr></tbody></table></td><td class="ydpad50dd7fgH ydpad50dd7fbAk"><br></td></tr><tr class="ydpad50dd7facZ"><td class="ydpad50dd7fgH"><br></td><td class="ydpad50dd7fgH ydpad50dd7facX ydpad50dd7fbAm" rowspan="2"><br></td></tr><tr class="ydpad50dd7facZ ydpad50dd7fxD"></tr><tr class="ydpad50dd7facZ ydpad50dd7fxD"><td colspan="3"><table class="ydpad50dd7fcf ydpad50dd7fadz yahoo-compose-table-card" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td class="ydpad50dd7fady"><div class="ydpad50dd7fajy" data-tooltip="Show details"><img class="ydpad50dd7fajz" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif" alt="" data-inlineimagemanipulating="true" data-id="1685126996014"></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><br></div></div></div></body></html>