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<P class=MsoNormal style="BACKGROUND: white"><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Smelt again at
center of water conflict: </SPAN></FONT></B><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Environmentalists
want 3 dozen contracts canceled or reworked.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="BACKGROUND: white"><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">The
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
/><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Fresno</st1:City></st1:place> Bee-
9/11/08</SPAN></FONT></B><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="BACKGROUND: white"><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">By John Ellis
</SPAN></FONT></B><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="BACKGROUND: white"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P><!-- START /pubsys/assets/common/related_content.comp -->
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><!--START QUICKSEARCH CAREER BUILDER WIDGET-->Environmentalists
want the federal government to cancel or renegotiate more than three dozen
long-term water contracts in the <st1:place w:st="on">Central Valley</st1:place>
because they say they were drawn up using flawed data.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">If the request is approved by U.S. District
Judge Oliver Wanger, agricultural users both north and south of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta say it would likely mean less water for them.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Some say the environmentalists' request has
the potential to turn the state's intricately woven water world upside down.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">That's because some Sacramento River users
say that if there's no federal contract, they should be able to reassert their
longtime state water rights -- a claim that could devastate the Westlands Water
District and even hurt the Friant Water Users Authority and other <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">San Joaquin</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">River</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> water users.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Wanger today will hear arguments in his
<st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Fresno</st1:place></st1:City> courtroom
on the request to cancel water contracts in a case involving the tiny delta
smelt, which environmentalists say is facing extinction.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">They say the population decline is driven
largely by reduced water coming into the delta, and also because increased
pumping for users south of the delta has helped wreck critical spawning areas
and is damaging the smelt's overall habitat. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Last year, Wanger threw out a key opinion
on the effects of delta water pumping on the smelt.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Data from that opinion -- which is being
rewritten by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -- were used to help craft the
new 25- to 40-year contracts with the 42 different users.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Environmentalists say the contracts should
instead be based on the new smelt opinion, which is scheduled to be finished
next year. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Trent Orr, an attorney with Earthjustice, a
nonprofit legal watchdog group in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Oakland</st1:City></st1:place>, said the environmentalists aren't
seeking to stop water deliveries. Instead, they want the contracts to be deemed
legally invalid, but then keep the order from taking effect for one year while
interim contracts are negotiated. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">More potentially explosive, some say, is
language in a legal brief on the contract issue filed by 22 Sacramento River
settlement contractors -- water users who had used <st1:place
w:st="on">Sacramento River</st1:place> water before the federal Central Valley
Project was constructed beginning in the late 1930s.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">These users say in court filings that if
there are no valid federal contracts -- as environmentalists want -- then they
would revert to using water under those pre-existing rights, and the U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation's "ability to operate the CVP would be severely compromised."
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">That in turn could affect users south of
the delta whose supply originates in the state's far north.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Among them are the San Joaquin River
Exchange Contractors Authority, which represents owners of 240,000 farmland
acres in Fresno, Madera, Merced and Stanislaus counties on the San Joaquin
Valley's west side. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Unlike other west-side water users such as
Westlands, the exchange contractors authority has historic water rights on the
<st1:PlaceName w:st="on">San Joaquin</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">River</st1:PlaceType> -- much like the settlement contractors on the
<st1:place w:st="on">Sacramento River</st1:place> -- dating back to the 1870s.
The exchange contractors subsequently agreed to instead take delta water via the
<st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Delta-Mendota</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Canal</st1:PlaceType>, but also reserved the right to reclaim their
share of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">San
Joaquin</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">River</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> water. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">If the authority turned to its historic San
Joaquin rights, that could affect water on the Valley's east side, including the
Friant Water Users Authority and those who get water from the Friant-Kern Canal.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Ron Jacobsma, general manager of the Friant
Water Users Authority, said that for the first 50 years of the CVP, there was
"little or no concern" that the exchange contractors authority would assert its
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">San Joaquin</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">River</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> claim. They held a
priority position in receiving delta water.#<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><A
href="">http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/862098.html</A><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>