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Today the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued this notice of oral argument for San Luis & Delta Mendota Water Authority v. NRDC, aka The Consolidated Delta Smelt Cases.  The oral argument will take place on Monday, September 10, at 9AM in the Lloyd D. George United States Courthouse in Las Vegas.  The oral argument will address appeals rel ...

In the continuing 9th Circuit litigation over Judge Wanger's decision to invalidate the 2008 delta smelt biological opinion, the federal government and the Natural Resources Defense Council on Friday filed briefs in response to earlier filings made by water users and the California Department of Water Resources.  For prior posts on this 9th Circ ...

This afternoon the Natural Resources Defense Council filed this reply brief in its Ninth Circuit appeal of Judge Wanger's decision from last year to enjoin the Fall X2 action.  That should complete briefing on the injunction, and we'll now for briefing to be completed in the merits appeal of Judge Wanger's decision to invalidate the 2008 delta sm ...

You may recall that in late January of this year I blogged that the Ninth Circuit delta smelt X2 litigation had been completed for the moment.  This was after the completion of briefing related to the water users' motion to dismiss NRDC's appeal of Judge Wanger's 2011 X2 injunction. Given that the Ninth Circuit has yet to rule on the water users' ...

On Friday, February 10, State Water Contractors, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority and Westlands Water District, and the California Department of Water Resources filed briefs in the ongoing appeal of Judge Wanger's 12/14/10 decision to invalidate the 2008 delta smelt biological opinion. ...

Last week, the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, Kern County Water Agency, State Water Contractors, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, and Westlands Water District filed this reply to the Natural Resources Defense Council's opposition to the water users' motion to dismiss NRDC's appea ...

Today the Natural Resources Defense Council filed this response brief in the Ninth Circuit, opposing California water users' December 2011 motion for the dismissal of NRDC's X2 injunction appeal. ...

Earlier today Aquafornia noted that state and federal authorities had reached an agreement on joint operations of the Central Valley Project and State Water Project and management of the projects with regard to species included in the National Marine Fisheries Service's flawed 2009 biological opinion, e.g. salmon and steelhead.  The agreement, whi ...

Regarding the independent panel report on the delta smelt X2 testimony controversy, reviews of the report suggest that the two federal scientists who provided the testimony at issue have been vindicated, and that Judge Wanger's Fall 2011 criticism of the scientists can now be said to be (as the Department of Interior told the Contra Costa Times) "u ...