Not only is the case complex and involves dozens of parties, he said the chaos caused by the pandemic is impeding the court’s ability to move swiftly. District Judge Dale Drozd hinted the plaintiffs’ requests for a ruling by May 11 will be a tall task. “In reality, has no justification for sitting out two months of briefing only to raise new allegations now, on the eve a decision regarding the preliminary injunction motion,” the feds countered in their opposition brief.ĭuring the marathon hearing, U.S. The federal court has combined California’s case with a matter filed by Natural Resources Defense Council, Defenders of Wildlife and Golden State Salmon Association. Department of Justice and various agricultural water suppliers accused the state of filing a last-minute motion for preliminary injunction meant to “waste” government and judicial resources. In oral arguments held remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic, they claimed that if allowed, the excess pumping will “trap and kill endangered species at a crucial time in their life cycles and threaten habitat critical to their survival.”Īttorneys for the U.S. On Thursday, California and an assortment of fishing and environmental groups urged a judge to require the feds to abide by the old limits for the remainder of the month while the case continues. But the relationship has shattered during the Trump administration. Stretching across 1,100 square miles and five counties, the delta is the hub of massive federal and state water projects which prop the state’s $50 billion agricultural industry and provide drinking water for over 25 million people.įor decades, the delta water supply has been jointly managed by the feds and the state. The drainage point of California’s largest rivers, the delta is the largest remaining estuary on the West Coast and the state’s most important water source.
The bureau claims the number of endangered fish species such as Chinook salmon and steelhead trout that have been killed or injured by pumping stations thus far in 2020 are below historical trends and well within its incidental take permit.Īs is often the case, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is once again the focus of California’s interminable water wars. Bureau of Reclamation - which operates one of the country’s largest water delivery systems with the Central Valley Project - has in recent weeks gulped past previous limits while the overarching lawsuit plays out in the Eastern District of California. The parties have sued and are pressing a federal judge to toss the biological opinion and force a new set of environmentally sound rules.
The feds claim the rules, or biological opinions, were crafted with the best scientific data and are a much-needed update to pumping limits enacted by the Obama administration in 2009.īut environmentalists and the state believe the rules were poisoned by political influence and meant to help President Donald Trump back up his campaign promise to “open up the water” to California farms. The Trump administration is defending guidelines passed in 2019 that gave it more leeway in deciding how much water it can safely take from California’s largest estuary and sell to farmers.
FRESNO - With a recent victory over environmentalists in tow, the Trump administration was back in federal court again Thursday arguing it could continue boosting water to California farmers without harming salmon despite the state careening toward another drought.