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<p class=MsoPlainText><b><span style='font-size:16.0pt'>Lawsuit seeks return of
millions for failed Delta protection plan <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>Contra Costa Times-6/3/10 <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>By Mike Taugher<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b>A coalition of Delta farmers and environmentalists
sued Thursday to recoup millions of dollars in taxpayer money they contend was
paid illegally to Kern County landowners who sold water to a failed Delta
environmental protection program.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b>The lawsuit, the latest salvo in an increasingly
chaotic and bitter statewide fight over Delta water, also seeks to force Kern
County landowners to return a giant underground reservoir to public ownership
and to undo a 16-year-old pact between state water officials and their
customers. That agreement, the litigants say, is destroying the Delta ecosystem
and enriching Kern County landowners.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b>Known as the Monterey Agreement, it changed how a
sprawling, state-owned water project delivers Delta water to parts of the Bay
Area, Kern County, Southern California and other parts of the state.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b>The agreement gave Kern County landowners the
underground reservoir and more reliable water supplies while also increasing
the amount of water pumped out of the Delta, the lawsuit contends.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b>"It's like Chinatown, on steroids," said
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance director Bill Jennings, referring
to the 1974 Jack Nicholson film that depicted Los Angeles' infamous raid on
Owens Valley water in the early 20th century.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b>A spokesman for the state Department of Water
Resources said lawyers there had not received a copy of the complaint and could
not comment on it. The Kern County Water Agency also declined to comment
Thursday and representatives of Paramount Farms, a private business with a
major stake in the underground water bank, were unavailable.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b>The lawsuit was filed this week in Sacramento Superior
Court because the state Department of Water Resources only recently completed
the environmental approvals needed to complete transfer of the bank and other
elements of the agreement. Despite the lengthy delay in completing the environmental
impact report, the changes have been in effect since 1996.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b>Specifically, the lawsuit seeks to invalidate the
environmental report and return to state ownership the 1 million-acre-foot Kern
Water Bank - 10 times the size of Los Vaqueros Reservoir near Brentwood.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b>It also seeks to undo other changes made at the Monterey
meetings, including one that increased the reliability of Kern County's water
deliveries and another that eliminated a contract provision that would allow
the state to permanently trim contracted water deliveries. Several reservoirs
envisioned when the contracts were written were never built, the litigants
said.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b>"We've handed out promises to people that can
never be met," Jennings said. "We're living essentially an
illusion."<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b>The lawsuit's allegation that Kern County landowners
illegally profited from sales to an environmental water account was based on a
Bay Area News Group investigation last year that showed the bank was used to
facilitate the sales.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b>Landowners and Kern County water agencies were able to
sell tens of millions of dollars worth of water to the Department of Water
Resources for more than they paid the department for the same water.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b>So much water was pumped out of the Delta from 2000 to
2007 that, in most cases, Kern County water agencies did not have to physically
deliver any water. Instead, they only had to make accounting adjustments and
collect the difference between what they paid, which could be as low as $28 per
acre-foot, and what they sold the water for, which was typically about $200 per
acre-foot.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b>Environmentalists blame the increased pumping for the
precipitous decline of Delta fish species that were supposed to be helped.
Delta water users contend the pumps were not to blame.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b>The newspaper investigation found $8.6 million in
credits, checks and refunds that were distributed from the water districts to
private landowners, including more than $3 million each to Paramount Farms,
owned by billionaire Stewart Resnick, and Blackwell Land LLC.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b>The lawsuit seeks return of those sums, but the lead
lawyer for the coalition that filed it said they would seek the return of
"every cent" in profits for water sold through the Kern Water Bank,
including sales of water to developers.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b>"We have this group of fat cats that have been
stockpiling water in their own slush fund that they had no right to
possess," said Adam Keats, a senior attorney in San Francisco for the
Center for Biological Diversity.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b>"These guys have been operating as if they own
this thing, but the entire time their ownership was dependent on the
(environmental) document."<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><b>Joining the environmental group in the lawsuit are two
Delta farm districts, the Central Delta Water Agency and the South Delta Water
Agency, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and the California
Water Impact Network, and two individuals.<o:p></o:p></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><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
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<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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