Court ruling favors Valley water distribution
A U.S. District Court’s ruling essentially provided the first step in allowing for more water to be delivered to Central California.
Several California Republican Congressmen reacted on Thursday in a letter to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California to stop the delay of implementation federal biological opinions in delivering more water to the Valley. The ruling was on a preliminary injunction filed by the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations’ motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the implementation of the federal biological opinions.
U.S. Congressmen Kevin Mccarthy, Ken Calvert, Paul Cook, Mike Garcia, Doug Lamalfa and Tom Mcclintock released the following statement:
“We are encouraged by the Court’s ruling on the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s
Associations’ baseless preliminary injunction motion, and are pleased the Court noted this injunction might have actually harmed certain protected fish. As this case now shifts to the merits, we believe the new federal biological opinions will not only withstand the Court’s scrutiny, but will also prove to be the best way to protect threatened and endangered species while improving water supplies for California’s families, farms, and communities.”
The motion to file for the preliminary injunction by the fishermen’s association was one of two overlapping motions for a preliminary injunction filed: Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the expanded delivery of water to the Central Valley on behalf of the state.
In February the Trump administration announced new biological opinions in which water deliveries from the Delta River would be based on. The Trump administration also announced the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Central Valley Project would deliver water to Central California based on those biological opinions.
Becerra argued a preliminary injunction was needed to prevent “irreversible harm” in the effort to protect the Delta smelt, longfin smelt, salmon and threatened steelhead trout. But those in the San Joaquin Valley and others said the guidelines to pump more water out of the San Joaquin Delta River based on the new biological opinions is needed to meet the needs of farmers and others.
The state wants water deliveries to the Valley to be more line with what its agency, the California State Water Project has proposed.
And there’s still a lot of uncertainty as far as what water from the Delta will be pumped to the Valley. In May, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California actually temporarily granted the state’s preliminary injunction through May 31.
At that time U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd ruled “…the harms are real, ongoing and are likely to have enough of a population level impact to warrant an injunction.” as far as harm to the fish habitat is concerned.
At that time Drozd also said “the court intends to issue a separate order addressing those remaining requests for injunctive relief in the near future.
In another development, the Central Valley Project announced a slight increase in water deliveries to the Friant Division, which includes the Friant-kern Canal, on Wednesday.
CVP announced its Class 1 allocation would be increased from 60 percent to 65 percent of 800,000 acre-feet of water.