In the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, where California\u2019s biggest rivers meet, the state\u2019s massive pumps send water flowing into canals to about 27 million people and 750,000 acres of farmland. <\/p>\n
A major new lawsuit argues the state is taking far too much water out of the Delta, harming native fish and the ecosystem, causing toxic algae blooms, and threatening local farms and communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal that we are aiming for is to save the Delta,\u201d said Carolee Krieger, executive director of the environmental group California Water Impact Network. \u201cWe want them to cut back the water they take out of the Delta by half.\u201d <\/p>\n
Her group filed the lawsuit Friday together with the Central Delta Water Agency, which represents hundreds of local farmers concerned that heavy pumping can draw seawater farther into the estuary, making their irrigation water salty, damaging their crops.<\/p>\n
Dave Owen, a professor at UC Law San Francisco, said the suit is \u201ca frontal assault on the State Water Project.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this case is a very big deal if it manages to go forward,\u201d Owen said. \u201cThis is one of the most ambitious California water lawsuits that I have seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs argue \u201cexcessive and unsustainable\u201d pumping by the state Department of Water Resources constitutes a \u201cwasteful and unreasonable use of water.\u201d They accuse the agency of violating both the state Constitution and the public trust doctrine<\/a>, the principle that certain natural resources must be preserved for the public.<\/p>\n They are asking the Alameda County Superior Court to order the state to pump out less water, leaving more to flow through the Delta to San Francisco Bay for the health of fish, the ecosystem and the local economy. They also want the court to assert oversight, determining how much pumping should be curtailed and requiring the state to develop a long-term plan under its supervision.<\/p>\n Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s administration has defended how the state balances pumping in the Delta to protect fish and the ecosystem with delivering water for farms and cities.<\/p>\n In 2024, state officials worked with the Biden administration to set new rules<\/a> for operating California\u2019s main water delivery systems, saying they aim to protect imperiled fish and reliably provide water for Californians.<\/p>\n Climate change threatens to shrink the amount of water<\/a> they can reliably deliver over the next 20 years, state officials have warned. To address the expected shortfall, the Newsom administration has been pushing for a 45-mile tunnel to transport water beneath the Delta.<\/p>\n A spokesperson at the Department of Water Resources said it does not comment on pending litigation.<\/p>\n Both plaintiffs have other lawsuits pending against the Newsom administration, challenging its plans for the tunnel, called the Delta Conveyance Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n In this case, they are challenging how the Department of Water Resources currently operates one of the largest water systems in the world, the State Water Project. It transports water across more than 700 miles with a series of reservoirs, aqueducts, pipelines and pumping plants from Northern California to Southern California.<\/p>\n Research shows the withdrawal of water has taken an ecological toll on the Delta and San Francisco Bay. Chinook salmon, steelhead trout, smelt and sturgeon have declined dramatically over the last few decades. <\/p>\n During droughts, algae blooms<\/a> have turned waterways bright green, posing health threats for people and animals.<\/p>\n Brett Baker, a lawyer for the Central Delta Water Agency, said the lawsuit focuses on curbing the \u201cdegradation of the ecosystem, the community, the economy in the Delta.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey operate the system to maximize exports,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re not good stewards.\u201d<\/p>\n About 56% of the water from the State Water Project<\/a> flows to urban areas, while 44% is used for agriculture.<\/p>\n The plaintiffs argue that the state\u2019s \u201cexcessive\u201d pumping from the Delta has led more growers to plant water-intensive almond<\/a> and pistachio<\/a> orchards across vast stretches of the San Joaquin Valley. They say in the lawsuit that this shift to permanent crops, which can\u2019t be fallowed in a drought, has compounded the state\u2019s water problems by \u201centrenching a rigid and unsustainable agricultural system.\u201d<\/p>\n Environmental advocates have for years considered bringing a case over water in the Delta based on these arguments, but have not done it until now. Owen predicted that it will be a difficult fight for the plaintiffs, and the state is likely to prevail.<\/p>\n \u201cThe stakes are high,\u201d Owen said.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s lawyers will come into court \u201carguing that this is basically a political objection to one of the primary systems of water allocation in California,\u201d Owen said. \u201cNo expense is going to be spared fighting this case, and it will be fought by some very talented and well-resourced people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, where California\u2019s biggest rivers meet, the state\u2019s massive pumps send water flowing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":876753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[14803,2356,36412,368828,22612,28409,192,18211,368829,28718,368830,79,13109,4121,259914,282,137259],"class_list":["post-876752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-administration","tag-california","tag-case","tag-dave-owen","tag-delta","tag-ecosystem","tag-environment","tag-fish","tag-lawsuit-friday","tag-plaintiff","tag-pumping","tag-science","tag-state","tag-state-department","tag-state-water-project","tag-water","tag-water-resources"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}