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face=Tahoma size=4><STRONG>CENTRAL VALLEY PROJECT</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Pay source fought in water deal
</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Lawmakers want to stop feds from tapping funds.
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<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Fresno Bee - 2/20/04</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>By Michael Doyle, staff
writer</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<P>WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration again wants to use Western water
project funds to pay for a multimillion-dollar settlement with Westlands Water
District farmers.</P>
<P>And California lawmakers, again, intend to stop the idea dead in its
tracks.</P>
<P>Barely a year after the administration retreated in the face of a unified
California congressional delegation, Interior Department officials have
resurrected a proposal for paying for the Westlands land-retirement deal. For
this latest $34 million round of payments, the administration proposes taking
the money out of the Bureau of Reclamation's budget. This is exactly what
Congress has previously ordered the administration not to do.</P>
<P>"We're going to fight that as much as we did last year," Mariposa Republican
George Radanovich said.</P>
<P>The dispute involves settlement of a long-running lawsuit known as Sumner
Peck v. Bureau of Reclamation. The Westlands farmers who rallied together in
1986 under the Sumner Peck name contend the government's failure to provide
irrigation drainage led to the poisoning of some 34,000 selenium-laden acres.
The December 2002 settlement involved the federal government agreeing to pay
$107 million and the Westlands district agreeing to pay $32 million in order to
retire the land from farming.</P>
<P>Fearing the Westlands land-retirement payments might starve some of their own
favorite water projects, the California lawmakers insist the federal
government's share be paid out of a Justice Department account rather than the
Bureau of Reclamation's budget. It's not simply an accounting debate.</P>
<P>"If you take the money out of the Bureau of Reclamation, then that's less
money to do things like water development," Visalia Republican Devin Nunes said
Thursday. "Obviously, this has to be changed."</P>
<P>The Bush administration, for instance, only asked for $15 million to support
California's Cal-Fed water program next year. This is half of what Congress
provided this year.</P>
<P>Interior Department officials, though, say they are waiting for the Justice
Department to complete an assessment of the law and its limitations. Until that
happens, officials said Thursday, they have no choice but to tap Bureau of
Reclamation funds. That plan is included in the Bush administration proposed
budget issued this month.</P>
<P>"The Bureau of Reclamation is committed to fulfilling the terms of the Sumner
Peck settlement," said Mark Limbaugh, the bureau's deputy commissioner. "We will
work with the Congress and the Department of Justice to assure the agreed-upon
payments will be made in full and on time."</P>
<P>The Justice Department asserted the money to pay for the deal could not come
from the "judgment fund," which is typically used to settle federal lawsuits.
Instead, Justice Department officials interpreted current U.S. law as saying the
agency settling the lawsuit had to come up with the settlement money on its
own.</P>
<P>That roiled lawmakers, particularly when the Interior Department identified
which water projects would be sacrificed to pay for the settlement. Officials
initially targeted studies at New Melones Reservoir, pump replacements in Placer
County, San Jose water reclamation and maintenance throughout the
Redding-to-Bakersfield Central Valley Project, among others.</P>
<P>"I'm not happy with the idea," Nunes said.</P>
<P>Both of California's senators and most of the state's 53 House members,
Republicans and Democrats alike, warned the Interior and Justice departments
last year not to use the Bureau of Reclamation funds. Congress subsequently used
an annual appropriations bill to force the first $34 million payment to come
from the Justice Department. Congress also revised the law governing judgments
in an effort to force the Justice Department judgment fund to handle any
payments more than $5 million.</P>
<P>Justice Department attorneys are now examining this legal restriction to
determine how binding it might be as the second payment comes due this
September. But Congress, Nunes said, is likely to move first with another
unmistakable shot across the bow.#</P>
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