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<p class=MsoNormal><strong><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:normal'>I could comment, but I won’t.<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></strong></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><strong><b><font size=4 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:
13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></strong></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><strong><b><font size=4 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:
13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma'>PROJECT</span></font></b></strong><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><strong><b><font size=4 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:
13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma'>Water ruling caught in federal fight </span></font></b></strong><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><strong><b><font size=4 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:
13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma'>Feinstein is against $26m award to five irrigation
districts. </span></font></b></strong><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><strong><b><font
size=4 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma'>Fresno</span></font></b></strong></st1:place></st1:City><strong><b><font
size=4 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma'> Bee -
12/17/04</span></font></b></strong><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><strong><b><font size=4 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:
13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma'>By Michael Doyle, staff writer</span></font></b></strong><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=sl-body><st1:State w:st="on"><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><!-- BEGIN Component: FresnoBee : component/z_CodeBlue/storylevel/noinstoryad_notools_sec.comp --><!-- BEGIN Component: FresnoBee : component/z_CodeBlue/storylevel/noinstoryad_notools_ind.comp --><!-- BEGIN Component: FresnoBee : component/z_CodeBlue/storylevel/image_main.comp --><span
style='font-size:13.5pt'><!-- END Component: FresnoBee : component/z_CodeBlue/storylevel/image_main.comp --><!-- END Component: FresnoBee : component/z_CodeBlue/storylevel/noinstoryad_notools_ind.comp --><!-- END Component: FresnoBee : component/z_CodeBlue/storylevel/noinstoryad_notools_sec.comp -->WASHINGTON</span></font></st1:State><font
size=4><span style='font-size:13.5pt'> — A multimillion-dollar Central
Valley water dispute has caught the Bush administration in a <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State> tug-of-war. </span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=sl-body><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><!-- BEGIN Component: FresnoBee : component/z_CodeBlue/storylevel/body_nophoto.comp --><!-- delete here --><span
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The case also inspired other Westerners to file similar claims.--></span></font><font
size=4><!--In April, the city of Stockton, San Joaquin County and the Stockton East Water District used similar reasoning to file a half-billion-dollar lawsuit over the federal government's failure to deliver water from New Melones Reservoir. Separately, farmers in the Klamath Basin along the California-Oregon border filed their own $1 billion claim over irrigation shortfalls.
--><!-- delete here --><!-- Component: FresnoBee : component/z_CodeBlue/storylevel/no_ads.comp --><!-- Component: FresnoBee : component/z_CodeBlue/storylevel/no_ads.comp --><span
style='font-size:13.5pt'>Fearing an expensive precedent, Democratic Sen. Dianne
Feinstein this week urged the administration to appeal a $26 million judgment
awarded to five Valley irrigation districts. Feinstein joined other top state
officials in warning of bad fallout from a settlement some think could be
imminent.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=sl-body><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
13.5pt'>"This precedent could make it impossible for the state and federal
agencies to protect and manage the San Francisco Bay-Delta, the heart of the
state's water system, without vastly increased public expenditures,"
Feinstein cautioned in a letter to three Bush administration Cabinet secretaries.
</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=sl-body><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
13.5pt'>The California Attorney General's Office and chairman of the state
Water Resources Control Board are likewise urging the Justice Department not to
settle with the Corcoran-based Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District and
Kern County Water Agency.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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12.0pt'><script language="JavaScript">
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</script></span></font><font size=4><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>But tugging
from the other side, Westerners long skeptical about federal environmental laws
have been publicly and privately rooting for a settlement with the water
districts. Tracy Republican Richard Pombo, chairman of the House Resources
Committee, told The Bee this month that he's heard a settlement is near. He
wants the farmers to win. </span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=sl-body><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
13.5pt'>"It's a matter of contract and what the contract says," Robin
Rivett, an attorney with the Sacramento-based Pacific Legal Foundation, said
Thursday. "It's a very strong case that the property owners had their
property taken from them."</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=sl-body><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
13.5pt'>Rivett, whose group filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the
farmers, said he actually would see some benefit in a government appeal.
Convinced that the government would lose in the appellate court, he said this
would extend the legal precedent further than the current ruling by the U.S.
Court of Federal Claims.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=sl-body><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
13.5pt'>The <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Tulare</st1:place></st1:City>
and Kern districts and three others sued the federal government over
undelivered irrigation water. The undelivered water helped preserve valuable
smelt and salmon protected under the Endangered Species Act, but it also hurt
farmers' pocketbooks.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=sl-body><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
13.5pt'>"At issue is not whether the federal government has the authority
to protect the winter-run Chinook salmon and delta smelt," U.S. Court of
Federal Claims Judge John Paul Wiese noted in his April 2001 opinion, "but
whether it may impose costs of their protection solely on [the water
districts]."</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=sl-body><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
13.5pt'>Wiese concluded the Fifth Amendment's prohibition against the
government's uncompensated taking of private property applied to the diversion
of contracted-for irrigation water. That means the water districts must be
reimbursed for their losses.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=sl-body><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
13.5pt'>Wiese's initial opinion and subsequent calculation of damages —
$13.9 million plus $9.8 million in interest plus attorney fees — sparked
considerable debate both inside and outside the federal government. Attorneys
noted they hadn't seen similar cases of Fifth Amendment financial claims
compelled because of the Endangered Species Act.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=sl-body><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
13.5pt'>"The interpretation of California law in [Wiese's] opinion could
fundamentally change the way that water resources are managed in California, to
the serious detriment of California taxpayers and resources users," Art
Baggett, chairman of the state Water Resources Control Board, said in his own
letter sent to the Justice Department, Interior Department and Commerce
Department this month.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=sl-body><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
13.5pt'>The Commerce Department oversees the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, which in March reminded the Justice Department that it, too,
had been urging an appeal for the past three years.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=sl-body><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
13.5pt'>Baggett and Feinstein, along with the state Attorney General's Office,
want the case shipped to the California Supreme Court, where technical
questions of state water law could be resolved in favor of the environment. In
particular, they note the state's responsibility to "protect public trust
uses" of water.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=sl-body><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
13.5pt'>"If there was to be a referral to the state court, it should have
happened years ago," Rivett retorted.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=sl-body><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
13.5pt'>The case also inspired other Westerners to file similar claims.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=sl-body><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
13.5pt'>In April, the city of <st1:City w:st="on">Stockton</st1:City>, <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">San Joaquin</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> and the Stockton East Water
District used similar reasoning to file a half-billion-dollar lawsuit over the
federal government's failure to deliver water from New Melones Reservoir.
Separately, farmers in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Klamath</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Basin</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> along the
California-Oregon border filed their own $1 billion claim over irrigation
shortfalls.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=sl-body><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
13.5pt'>In all three cases, the Washington-based firm of Marzulla &
Marzulla is pressing the claims.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:PersonName w:st="on"><em><i><font size=3 color=gray
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Byron
Leydecker</span></font></i></em></st1:PersonName><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Chair, Friends of <st1:place w:st="on">Trinity
River</st1:place></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Consultant, California Trout, Inc.</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:address w:st="on"><st1:Street w:st="on"><em><i><font
size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:gray'>PO Box</span></font></i></em></st1:Street><em><i><font
color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='color:gray'> 2327</span></font></i></em></st1:address><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><em><i><font
size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:gray'>Mill Valley</span></font></i></em></st1:City><em><i><font
color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='color:gray'>, <st1:State w:st="on">CA</st1:State>
<st1:PostalCode w:st="on">94942-2327</st1:PostalCode></span></font></i></em></st1:place><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 4810 ph</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 519 4810 ce</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 9562 fx</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net">bwl3@comcast.net</a></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org"><em><i><font
face="Times New Roman"><span style='text-decoration:none'>bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</span></font></i></em></a><em><i><font
face="Times New Roman"> (secondary)</font></i></em><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><a href="http://www.fotr.org">http://www.fotr.org</a></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-style:italic'><a href="http://www.caltrout.org">http://www.caltrout.org</a></span><o:p></o:p></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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