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<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>Eureka Times-Standard <BR><A
href="http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2454559,00.html">http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2454559,00.html</A>#
<P><B>Healdsburg opts out of Trinity suit</B>
<P>Friday, October 08, 2004 - The Times-Standard
<P>Yet another city has bailed out of a suit that aims to block the full
<BR>restoration of the Trinity River.
<P>The Healdsburg City Council on Monday unanimously decided to send a letter
<BR>to the Northern California Power Association asking the group to drop out
<BR>of the litigation. The vice mayor of the city, Jason Liles, is also
<BR>chairman of the association's legislative committee.
<P>The move follows several other entities that have opted out of the suit
<BR>brought against the restoration plan for the river. The Sacramento
<BR>Municipal Utilities District, the Port of Oakland, Palo Alto and Alameda
<BR>have all withdrawn their support for the suit waged by the power
<BR>association and Westlands Water District, the Central Valley irrigation
<BR>interest that benefits the most from the diversion of most of the Trinity's
<BR>water from above Lewiston Dam.
<P>Up to 90 percent of the river's flow has been diverted since the project
<BR>was completed in the 1960s. In 2000, former U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce
<BR>Babbitt signed a decision leaving nearly half the Trinity's water in the
<BR>river. Westlands and the power association sued, and the Hoopa Valley Tribe
<BR>intervened in the suit against Interior. The river bisects the Hoopa
<BR>Reservation.
<P>In July, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cleared the way for
<BR>increased flows on the Trinity. Westlands and the power association have
<BR>appealed.
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