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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";
color:black'>Former Bush officials find work with leading player in state water
wars<br>
</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";
color:black'><br>
</span><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";
color:blue'><a href="mnginteractive.com/live/std/largest.gif">By Mike Taugher
Contra Costa Times</a></span></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Geneva","serif";color:black'><br>
<br>
Posted: 05/10/2010 03:28:19 PM PDT<br>
<br>
Updated: 05/11/2010 07:04:12 AM PDT<br>
<br>
A former Bush administration official whose tenure was marked by systematic
attempts to weaken endangered species protections has gone to work for a
powerful California farm district that has the same aim in the Delta.</span></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";color:#0070C0'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";
color:black'><br>
Craig Manson, assistant Interior Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks from
2001 through 2005, now serves as general counsel for the Westlands Water
District, the nation's largest irrigation district.</span></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";color:#0070C0'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";
color:black'><br>
He joins another former high ranking Interior Department official in the Bush
Administration, Jason Peltier, who since 2007 has been the No. 2 official
there.</span></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";
color:#0070C0'> </span></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Geneva","serif";color:black'>Manson's deputy at the Bush Interior Department,
Julie MacDonald, has been consulting for Westlands in a lawsuit involving
endangered species, according to district general manager Tom Birmingham.</span></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";color:#0070C0'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";
color:black'><br>
The hirings come as Westlands struggles to maintain its water supplies during
the Delta environmental collapse Delta largely blamed on water deliveries.</span></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";color:#0070C0'> </span></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";color:black'>Westlands is
ground zero in the conflict between water supplies and the needs of the Delta
ecosystem because when water is cut, Westlands farmers often take the firs</span></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";color:#0070C0'>t</span></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";color:black'> hit. That's
because the district, formed in the 1950s, has, in effect, a lower priority
claim on water than regions that have been around longer.</span></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";color:#0070C0'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";
color:black'><br>
During last year's drought, Westlands was by far the state's most heavily
affected region. Although drought was the bigger cause of its water shortages,
Westlands problems were compounded by</span></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Geneva","serif";color:#0070C0'> </span></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";color:black'>environmental
rules protecting endangered fish and a 1990s law that shifted water from farms
to the Delta environment.<br>
<br>
Westlands and other water agencies sued last year to ease restrictions meant to
protect Delta smelt, salmon and other fish. A ruling in is expected soon.</span></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";color:#0070C0'> </span></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";color:black'>"He
(Manson) is uniquely qualified to be the district's general counsel," said
Birmingham. "The district is incredibly lucky to have him with the issues
we have been dealing with in the last 20 years."<br>
Critics said the move shows how cozy Bush's Interior Department became with the
industries it regulated.</span></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Geneva","serif";color:#0070C0'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";
color:black'><br>
"This is one of the longest-running abuses of the Bush administration's
revolving door I have ever seen," said Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez.
"When they were officials in the Interior Department, they worked with
their industry friends to tamper with scientific evidence and violate the law,
and they helped send the Bay-Delta into a tailspin."<br>
"Now," Miller added, "the whole gang is working together again
to file lawsuits against efforts to restore California's salmon fishery."</span></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";color:#0070C0'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";
color:black'><br>
Manson said he had intended to remain a professor at McGeorge School of Law in
Sacramento, where he has been since 2006, but that "circumstances and
opportunities came along."<br>
He defended his tenure at Interior, saying, "We insisted there be good
science behind every decision that was made."</span></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";color:#0070C0'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";
color:black'><br>
He rejected the idea that he was passing through a revolving door, noting that
he worked for government before going to the Interior Department and was in
academia before he joined Westlands.</span></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Geneva","serif";color:#0070C0'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";
color:black'><br>
Still, three investigations by the Interior Department's inspector general
found MacDonald's activities, with Manson's support, "caused considerable
harm to the integrity of the (Endangered Species Act) program," to the
morale of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and possibly harm to endangered
species, inspector general Earl E. Devaney wrote in December 2008.</span></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";color:#0070C0'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";
color:black'><br>
"Her (MacDonald's) heavy-handedness has cast doubt on nearly every ESA
decision issued during her tenure," he wrote. "MacDonald's conduct
was backed by the seemingly blind support of (Manson.)</span></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";color:#0070C0'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";
color:black'><br>
MacDonald declined to comment.</span></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Geneva","serif";color:#0070C0'> </span></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";color:black'>"She's
incredibly bright, she's detail oriented, she gets right to the nub of it.
There are people who don't like that," Manson said.<br>
MacDonald resigned in April 2007, a month after the first of the investigations
found numerous questionable actions, including leaking an email to the
California Farm Bureau that it used in its unsuccessful lawsuit to remove Delta
smelt from the endangered species list.</span></b><b><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";color:#0070C0'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";
color:black'><br>
A follow-up story by the Contra Costa Times showed MacDonald also participated
in an unprecedented decision to remove Sacramento splittail from the list of
endangered species even though that decision directly affected her property
near Dixon.</span></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";
color:#0070C0'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";
color:black'><br>
The inspector general's office later confirmed she heavily edited the splittail
decision and it forwarded the findings to federal prosecutors, who declined to
press charges.<br>
The Fish and Wildlife Service has reopened the splittail question and will
decide by September whether the fish should be put back on the threatened and
endangered species list.<br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";
color:black'>Mike Taugher covers the environment. Contact him at 925-943-8257.</span></b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Geneva","serif";color:black'><br>
<br>
</span><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>
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</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>(secondary)</span></i><b><span
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