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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:7.5pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:26.25pt;margin-left:0in'><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'><a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article122393009.html">http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article122393009.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:7.5pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:26.25pt;margin-left:0in'><span lang=EN style='font-size:22.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Farmers score in battle over diverting Klamath River water for endangered species <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><img border=0 width=346 height=230 id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D25D15.7BA5B740" alt="Phil Norton, manager of the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges in Tulelake, Calif., on July 17, 2001, walks across the mud flats that were created when water from the Klamath River was cut off."></span><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>Phil Norton, manager of the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges in Tulelake, Calif., on July 17, 2001, walks across the mud flats that were created when water from the Klamath River was cut off. AL SEIB AP <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt'><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>By Michael Doyle</span><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'> 12/23/16</span><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt'><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><a href="mailto:mdoyle@mcclatchydc.com" title=""><span style='color:#0D76BA;text-decoration:none'>mdoyle@mcclatchydc.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>WASHINGTON <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt'><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>Northern California and Oregon irrigation districts have won a key round in a long-running legal battle as they seek compensation for their loss of water in the Klamath River Basin.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt'><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><a href="https://ecf.cofc.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2001cv0591-474-0" target="_blank" title=""><span style='color:#0D76BA;text-decoration:none'>In a 53-page opinion</span></a>, U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Marilyn Blank Horn concluded the federal government’s 2001 diversion of Klamath River Basin water amounted to a “physical taking” of the irrigation districts’ property. Horn’s ruling Wednesday rejected the government’s argument that the diversion instead amounted to a “regulatory taking.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt'><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>The technical-sounding difference could shape the final dollar-and-cents’ outcome. As attorney Josh Patashnik put it in a <a href="http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1015&context=lawreview" target="_blank" title=""><span style='color:#0D76BA;text-decoration:none'>Santa Clara Law Review</span></a> article, a judge’s determination of a physical rather than regulatory taking “often plays a central role in determining whether property owners are paid compensation.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt'><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>“The distinction is important because physical takings constitute per se takings and impose a ‘categorical duty’ on the government to compensate the owner, whereas regulatory takings generally require balancing and ‘complex factual assessments,’ ” Horn noted.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt'><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>Horn’s decision marks the latest turn in a roller-coaster case first filed Oct. 11, 2001, by the Klamath Irrigation District, individual farmers and other water users in the region straddling Northern California and southern Oregon. The case went back and forth and was originally dismissed but then resurrected in 2011 by an appeals court.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt'><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>The districts and farmers, represented by the D.C.-based <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/crime/article24771400.html" target="_blank" title=""><span style='color:#0D76BA;text-decoration:none'>Marzulla Law firm</span></a>, contend the government owes compensation, under the Fifth Amendment, for the temporary cessation of water deliveries in 2001 in order to protect endangered species including the Lost River sucker. The various legal and procedural complications are enumerated in the 474 separate court filings made since the first lawsuit landed in the court located near the White House.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt'><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>Drawing support from past Western water cases, Horn noted that government officials employed “physical means” to cut off the farmers’ water.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt'><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>“By refusing to release water from Upper Klamath Lake and Klamath River, the government prevented water that would have, under the status quo ante, flowed into the Klamath Project canals and to the plaintiffs,” Horn wrote.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt'><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>Horn added that she was in “no way making any determinations as to the nature or scope of plaintiffs’ alleged property rights,” which will be figured out in a trial.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt'><i><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>Michael Doyle: <a href="tel:202-383-6153" title=""><span style='color:#0D76BA;text-decoration:none'>202-383-6153</span></a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/MichaelDoyle10" target="_blank" title=""><span style='color:#0D76BA;text-decoration:none'>@MichaelDoyle10</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal><i><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><br>Read more here: <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article122393009.html#storylink=cpy">http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article122393009.html#storylink=cpy</a><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>