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<H1 id=articleTitle class=articleTitle>North state lawsuit a major onslaught in
war over water</H1><!--subtitle--><!--byline-->
<DIV id=articleByline class=articleByline><A
href="http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_14428933?nclick_check=1">http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_14428933?nclick_check=1</A></DIV>
<DIV class=articleByline><A class=articleByline href="">By Mike Taugher Contra
Costa Times</A></DIV><!--date-->
<DIV id=articleDate class=articleDate>Posted: 02/18/2010 05:05:10 PM
PST</DIV><!--secondary date-->
<DIV id=articleDate class=articleSecondaryDate>Updated: 02/18/2010 05:34:39
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<P class=bodytext>Invoking the specter of a century-old Los Angeles water grab,
Northern California farmers have filed a lawsuit that may escalate the state's
ongoing water crisis.</P>
<P>The farmers say the San Joaquin Valley communities hardest hit by drought and
new protections for endangered species in the Delta — including the nation's
largest irrigation district — are nevertheless illegally getting water that
belongs to the northerners.</P>
<P>"The last thing we want to see is the Sacramento Valley become another Owens
Valley," said Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority general manager Jeff Sutton. He was
referring to the early 20th century raid on the Owens Valley by Los Angeles, an
episode made famous by the 1974 movie "Chinatown."</P>
<P>At issue are guarantees made before California's two major water projects
were built to deliver water through the Delta to parts of the Bay Area, the San
Joaquin Valley and Southern California.</P>
<P>Those guarantees, known as "area of origin" laws, say that water-rich areas
of the state would not end up water poor when the projects started shipping
water elsewhere.</P>
<P>The Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority, which serves orchards and farms in Tehama,
Glenn, Colusa and Yolo counties, says that is exactly what has been happening
with increasing frequency. Its farmers are entitled to 100 percent of their
contracted water supplies before any water can be sent from the Delta to the
Westlands Water District and smaller San Joaquin </P>districts, the authority
says. In recent years, the authority's farmers have seen their contract amount
cut by more than half, nearly as severe as cuts in the San Joaquin Valley.
<P></P>
<P>"I've been waiting for this lawsuit for about 30 years," said Michael
Jackson, an attorney who frequently represents environmental groups and Northern
California interests on water issues but is not involved in this case. "It had
to happen sooner or later. There's just not enough water."</P>
<P>"I think it is one of the four or five biggest things that have happened in
California water law," Jackson said.</P>
<P>More than a dozen lawsuits have been filed in the last couple of years as
water agencies, environmental groups wrangle over a water system that appears to
be bordering on chaos. </P>
<P>Scientists are concerned some Delta fish species could be headed for
extinction, the number of returning adult salmon in what was just a few years
ago a commercially valuable run fell to a record low — and no one understands
exactly why.</P>
<P>The result is that as demand for water has grown, the supply has effectively
shrunk as more water is dedicated to the environment. Water agencies are now
more willing to fight each other for water in what is clearly a zero-sum
game.</P>
<P>The area-of-origin laws have been used infrequently. In effect, the lawsuit
is a declaration that the time has come for the federal government to keep
promises made many decades ago that Northern California would have access to
water in its watersheds when it was needed.</P>
<P>The lawsuit could result in taking water from downstream customers of the
federal Central Valley Project, which are mostly farm districts in the San
Joaquin Valley that have been hardest hit by the recent drought and which face
the likelihood that they will not be able to recover if this year turns out to
be normal.</P>
<P>"What we're talking about is a small fractional reduction to those folks,"
Sutton said. "We're sympathetic to those folks in the San Joaquin Valley."</P>
<P>The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which runs the project, said it would not
comment on the lawsuit.</P>
<P>But in a September letter to the northern canal authority, the bureau's
regional director, Donald Glaser, said the government cut their water supply
because of dry weather.</P>
<P>A spokeswoman for the Westlands Water District, the nation's largest
irrigation district and biggest customer of the Central Valley Project's Delta
pumps, said the lawsuit was another sign that the state's water supplies are
inadequate, which she blamed on environmental laws.</P>
<P>"Everyone is currently fighting for every last drop that we have," Westlands
spokeswoman Sarah Woolf said. "It's not
surprising.'</P></DIV></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>