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<p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://www.greenwire.com/" title=Greenwire><b><span
style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:blue;text-decoration:none'><img
border=0 width=530 height=65 id="_x0000_i1025"
src="cid:image001.jpg@01CAA4CD.C4C02C60"></span></b></a><span style='font-family:
"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>An
E&E Publishing Service <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>ENDANGERED
SPECIES: Judge signals he'll likely keep ESA limits on Calif.
irrigators (Wednesday, February 3, 2010)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Colin Sullivan,
E&E reporter<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>FRESNO, Calif. -- A federal judge
will decide by early next week whether to relax water pumping restrictions to
help struggling farmers in the San Joaquin Valley.</span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Judge Oliver Wanger of the U.S.
District Court for the Eastern District of California heard arguments here
yesterday by the Justice Department, California water districts, farmers and
environmental groups on a pair of federal biological opinions that have limited
pumping on the south end of the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta to help endangered
salmon.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Pumping in the south end, which
feeds irrigators and orchards in the valley, has been limited since Jan. 20
under a bi-op intended to give the endangered winter run of chinook salmon a
better path to the Pacific Ocean, where they feed and mature until returning
one day to the Sacramento River to spawn upstream of the delta.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Attorneys for the Westlands Water
District, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and state
water contractors, among others, urged Wanger to issue a temporary restraining
order that would reopen the pumps for business. They said a recent run of
winter storms, which has soaked the coast and dumped several feet of snow in
the Sierra Nevada, should justify the suspensions so that a percentage of the
water could be stored for use later in the year.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>"There are just volumes of
water ... flowing out the Golden Gate Bridge when they should be and can be
captured and put to better use," said Eileen Diepenbrock, of Diepenbrock
Harrison, which represents the Westlands district.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Bridget Kennedy McNeil, a trial
lawyer for the environment and natural resources division at DOJ, countered
that the water was working just as it was intended to under the federal salmon
recovery plan, which Wanger himself implemented last summer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>"It's not wasted,"
McNeil said, in a rebuttal to Diepenbrock. "It's water that's being put to
the benefit of endangered species."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>A separate attempt to attain a
restraining order for the delta smelt bi-op was rejected in a preliminary
ruling by Wanger. He said the question of raising the delta smelt, which is
also endangered, was moot since pumping restrictions under the smelt recovery
plan have not yet been put into operation this year.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>On the salmon bi-op, Wanger
seemed to be leaning toward siding with DOJ, the National Marine Fisheries
Service and environmental groups. More than once, he implied that he would not
likely intervene under the Endangered Species Act because no human dislocation
had been caused by the pumping curbs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In a give-and-take with
attorneys, Wanger said economic hardship for farmers does not appear to rise to
the standard imposed by the ESA to favor humans over a species nearing
extinction. The farmers, in other words, might have better luck changing the
law or revising the bi-ops, Wanger appeared to imply.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>"They've got to go persuade
their legislators that economics should be on the table," Wanger said.
"What is clear is this: The form of any relief in this case cannot
jeopardize or otherwise put species or its habitat at further risk."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>After the hearing adjourned, at
least one attorney for the farmers said that exchange convinced him that Wanger
would turn down the restraining order.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>"He seems like he wants to
give us the water but just can't under the law," this attorney said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Wanger said he would rule on the
restraining order, which could turn the pumps on for as long as 28 days, by
next Tuesday. Separate attempts by the water districts to attain an injunction
of the bi-ops, to resume pumping through the summer, will proceed in late March
or early April.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The court cases, which have been
consolidated by Wanger into a single proceeding, are moving forward as the
National Academy of Sciences continues to review the science behind the bi-ops,
<span style='background:yellow;mso-highlight:yellow'>a step that was ordered by
the Obama administration under pressure from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)</span>.
Findings from that process are due this spring.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Byron
Leydecker, JcT</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Chair, Friends
of Trinity River</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>PO Box 2327</span></i><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Mill Valley, CA
94942-2327</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 4810
land/fax (call first to fax)</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 519 4810
mobile</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net"><span style='color:blue'>bwl3@comcast.net</span></a></span></i></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org"><span style='color:blue'>bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</span></a>
</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>(secondary)</span></i><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="http://fotr.org/"><span style='color:blue'>http://www.fotr.org</span></a>
</span></i></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
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