Articles

Author: Brandon Middleton With Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s proposal to increase water deliveries to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California, there’s been a renewed discussion of the “fish vs. people” theme that accompanies the debate on California’s water policy.  For example, the Fresno Bee’s Jim Boren sugg ...

Author:  Damien M. Schiff Last month, the Little Hoover Commission, a state independent government oversight agency, issued its report Managing for Change:  Modernizing California's Water Governance.  The report details the Commission's recommendations for moving California water management and allocation into the 21st cen ...

Author: Brandon Middleton The federal government has joined NRDC in appealing last week's X2 decision.  The feds' appeal was filed last night and was accompanied by a motion for a stay of the injunction and a memorandum in support of the motion for a stay. It is unclear at this point how this latest filing … ...

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 … ...

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 agreemen ...

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. … ...

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 ...

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 op ...

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 … ...