[env-trinity] STATEMENT OF WESTLANDS WATER DISTRICT ON SETTLEMENT OF DRAINAGE LAWSUIT

[Kier Associates]

All of which simply confirms the thesis of Lloyd Carter’s Golden Gate Univ environmental law journal article ‘ <http://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1033&context=gguelj> Reaping Riches in a Wretched Region: Subsidized Industrial Farming and Its Link to Perpetual Poverty’ : that the CVP’s San Luis Unit as authorized by Congress was a tragic mistake – and not an honest one, but a canard. 

 

There was enough water to be had from the Trinity River to serve its long-intended service area, that dry patch between Williams and Dunnigan/Zamora – maybe. 

 

But there sure as heck wasn’t enough to turn the San Joaquin Valley’s west-side Oil Patch, much of it owned by Standard Oil of CA, into a sustainable garden (see Dane Durham’s  <http://www.c-win.org/webfm_send/175> How the Trinity Lost Its Water)

 

Bill Kier

From: env-trinity [mailto:env-trinity-bounces at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us] On Behalf Of Tom Stokely
Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2015 2:18 PM
To: Env-trinity
Subject: [env-trinity] STATEMENT OF WESTLANDS WATER DISTRICT ON SETTLEMENT OF DRAINAGE LAWSUIT

 

PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release

September 15, 2015 Contact: Gayle Holman

(559) 241-6233

STATEMENT OF WESTLANDS WATER DISTRICT ON

SETTLEMENT OF DRAINAGE LAWSUIT

FRESNO - The United States Department of Justice and Westlands Water District have

approved a settlement, which, if approved by Congress, would end a decades-long

dispute over the Bureau of Reclamation’s responsibility to provide drainage for the

farmland within Westlands. It provides a fair and equitable solution for Westlands’

landowners who lost the productive use of their land caused by Reclamation’s failure to

provide drainage services to those lands, while at the same time providing a cost

savings of approximately $3.5 billion to the United States.

The settlement has been the subject of comprehensive review by the Department of

Justice, Department of the Interior and Westlands. After this extensive review, the

parties determined the settlement to be the best path forward for the federal

government and Westlands and its landowners. Congress must approve the settlement

before it becomes effective.

In the 1960s, the San Luis Act mandated the construction of agricultural drainage

facilities to serve lands covered by the expansion of the Central Valley Project.

Construction on the drainage facilities was never completed, and in 1985, the San Luis

Drain was closed and drainage service to Westlands was terminated.

After years of inaction by Reclamation, Westlands filed a claim against the Secretary of

the Interior and Bureau of Reclamation to compel Reclamation to provide drainage

service. In 2000, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed

a decision in favor of Westlands and determined that the Secretary had a mandatory

duty to provide drainage service under the San Luis Act. The settlement approved by

Justice and Westlands acts as a global resolution, concluding decades of disputes and

litigation over an environmental problem that has gone unaddressed.

The drainage settlement requires Westlands to assume full responsibility for drainage

management within its boundaries. Westlands will be required to retire a minimum of

100,000 acres of land and to repurpose the non-irrigated lands for environmentally

friendly uses. The settlement relieves Westlands of repayment obligation for prior

expenditures by the United States for construction of the Central Valley Project.

Under the terms of the settlement, the Department of the Interior will oversee

Westlands’ management of drainage. The settlement relieves taxpayers of a liability of

approximately $3.5 billion dollars and caps water deliveries to the District at seventy-five

percent of its contract amount.

Westlands and the United States have agreed to work cooperatively to seek settlement

of drainage claims brought by landowners against the United States in Etchegoinberry

v. United States, a separate case pending in the United States Court of Federal Claims.

However, Westlands will pay any compensation to landowners as a result of a

settlement in the Etchegoinberry case, and Westlands will indemnify the United States

against any future landowner claim.

The Westlands Water District is the most productive agricultural land in the U.S.,

generating $3.5 billion in farm-related economic activities and more than one billion

dollars’ worth of food and fiber. Westlands’ 700 family-owned farms feed local

communities, California and the nation. Agriculture is the bedrock of life and this

agricultural region is a critical asset for California.

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