[env-trinity] CALFED EIR Loses in Appeals Court

[tstokely at trinityalps.net]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-calfed11oct11,1,2590373.story?coll=l
a-headlines-california&ctrack=1&cset=true

October 11, 2005 latimes.com 
 
Delta Plan Is Dealt a Blow
By Bettina Boxall, Times Staff Writer


The 5-year-old CalFed program, which governs California's single largest
source of fresh water, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, has been dealt a
setback by a state appeals court that ruled that parts of the program's
environmental review were inadequate. 

The opinion, released late Friday, concluded that the review was too narrow
because it failed to consider the effects of reducing water exports from
the delta to Central and Southern California. The CalFed program was
created to balance the state's water needs with protection of the delta,
including its fish. 

ADVERTISEMENT 
  
State officials were still reviewing the 224-page decision, but CalFed
critics suggested the ruling opened the door to a fundamental rethinking of
the program's plan to fix the delta's many environmental problems while
simultaneously stepping up water deliveries.

"The implications are substantial," said longtime delta advocate Bill
Jennings, chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.
"It's certainly a huge victory that will perhaps dissuade us from
continuing this headlong rush of increasing exports that have contributed
to the delta's decline."

The ruling is just the latest problem for CalFed, a joint state-federal
effort that has struggled for federal funding since its inception. This
year it encountered stinging criticism from state legislators who said it
was ineffective, and the Schwarzenegger administration has ordered a
reevaluation of the program.

"We're in the middle of a restructuring and refocusing on how to best
accomplish our goals, and this provides further guidance for that effort,"
said Keith Coolidge, spokesman for the California Bay-Delta Authority,
which oversees CalFed.

The 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento upheld CalFed on a number of
issues in the case, turning away challenges to other parts of its
environmental review that were raised in a lawsuit filed by delta water
agencies and the California Farm Bureau Federation.

But the panel said that when CalFed was reviewing various options for the
delta, it should have considered the possibility of reducing water exports
— which help provide water to nearly two of every three Californians.

The state, a defendant in the suit, has said that given population growth
and CalFed's mandate to improve water supplies, that option was not
feasible.

Though the court wrote that "the record contains evidence that significant
exports from the delta will be needed in the future to meet water demands
in Southern California," it went on to say that reduced exports could help
meet CalFed's other goals, which include ecosystem restoration. 

The appeals panel further suggested that if less water flowed south from
the delta, there might be less growth and therefore less demand.

"CalFed appears not to have considered, as an alternative, smaller water
exports from the Bay-Delta region, which might, in turn, lead to smaller
population growth due to the unavailability of water to support such
growth," the judges wrote.

Officials of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which
intervened in the case, said they were troubled by that argument.

"There's an assumption in this court's decision that if you reduce exports,
you will reduce growth," said Metropolitan Vice President Tim Quinn. "If
you look at the history of California over the last quarter of a century,
that doesn't fit with facts. The State Water Project never got completed,
yet we grew."

Metropolitan's general counsel, Jeffrey Kightlinger, said a separate case
involving legal challenges to CalFed's federal environmental reviews was
still pending, complicating the implications of the state ruling. He also
pointed out that since the environmental reports were drawn up, CalFed had
been reauthorized by Congress and the California Legislature.

"There clearly has been a legislative directive to go and do these
projects, so there's a legal question as to whether you would even need
this kind of [environmental] document," he said. "I don't think you're
going to see a complete revamping or rewriting of CalFed because the
legislatures have said to move forward." 

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/13684666p-14527064c.html

Court's ruling a challenge to CalFed
State water authority's legal foundation is questioned.
By Matt Weiser -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, October 8, 2005 
Story appeared on Page A1 of The Bee
 

In what amounts to a huge victory for Delta water interests, an appellate
court Friday told a leading state water authority that it must study the
effects of sending less water to Southern California. 
The ruling effectively calls into question the legal foundation for the
state's most important water treaty organization - the CalFed Bay-Delta
Program. 


 "This is a big, blunt crowbar stuck in the spokes of the CalFed wheel,"
said Bill Jennings, chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection
Alliance, who has followed the case closely. 
CalFed, a consortium of state and federal water interests, was founded on
the premise that it is possible to increase water supplies while also
improving the environment in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The maze of
waterways is the heart of the state's water network and supplies drinking
water for 22 million people. 

The Delta serves as a conduit for moving water from the moist north state
to the thirsty south. For decades, it has been at the core of California
water wars. 

CalFed was an attempt to create a new framework to resolve those disputes.
It depends on a complex charter adopted in August 2000 to guide billions of
dollars in spending. This, in turn, was based on an environmental impact
report that evaluated the effect on the Delta of its actions to distribute
water and improve the environment. 

But water users within the Delta, including irrigation districts and
farming groups, promptly filed a lawsuit claiming the CalFed program would
harm their water quality by continuing to support water exports to Southern
California. 

Those exports, which depend on powerful pumps and a network of canals that
begin near Tracy, have been blamed for killing fish and increasing salinity
in the Delta. 

On Friday, California's 3rd District Court of Appeal overturned a lower
court ruling, finding instead that the CalFed charter failed to consider a
future in which those exports would be reduced. 

The court effectively ordered the environmental study underlying the CalFed
charter to be revised. As a result, plaintiffs said, the CalFed charter
itself might have to change. 

Although the ruling is likely to be appealed, plaintiffs were jubilant. 

"We view it as a very significant victory," said Dante Nomellini, a
Stockton attorney who represented plaintiffs including the Central Delta
Water Agency. 

"On the principal issue of most importance to us and to the state, the
court identified the flaw: Failure to consider alternatives that would
reduce exports from the Delta." 

Jennings, of the sports fishing alliance, was more blunt: "I think this
will have far-reaching implications for the hydraulic system of California.
This is ultimately going to control the pumps." 

That remains to be seen. The decision came late on Friday and its full
implications aren't yet known. 

The defendants include CalFed, the state Department of Water Resources, and
powerful water exporters such as the Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California and Westlands Water District. 

Many of those defendants could not be reached for comment Friday. 

The court did support the defendants on a number of key points, including
upholding much of the CalFed environmental document itself and its handling
of public comments. 

"You win some, you lose some," said Keith Coolidge, spokesman for CalFed.
"Those are the court's words. They affirmed our position on a number of
different areas. 

"I don't yet know what we're going to do. However, there is a likelihood
this will be appealed," he said. 

The ruling comes at a difficult time for CalFed. Lately the agency has been
accused of being too cozy with water interests. It is in the midst of a
comprehensive organizational review ordered by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

That review already has reached some stinging conclusions, finding, for
instance, that there is a lack of accountability within the organization
and no clear lines of authority. Its executive director and science chief
both announced their resignations last year. 

On top of it all, populations of two key fish species - the striped bass
and threatened Delta smelt - are crashing in the Delta. Though there is no
clear evidence of a cause, many observers blame water exports, which have
set records in recent years. 

Coolidge said the timing of the court ruling "represents an opportunity for
us. We're in the midst of re-evaluating virtually all areas of the CalFed
program. All things represent opportunity." 



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WATER ISSUES
* The CalFed Bay-Delta Program is a consortium of state and federal water
interests. Its maze of waterways is the heart of the state's water network
and supplies drinking water for 22 million people. 
* A new state appeals court ruling effectively means the CalFed charter may
have to change. 

* The ruling is likely to be appealed. 


About the writer:
The Bee's Matt Weiser can be reached at (916) 321-1264 or
mweiser at sacbee.com.

 


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