California needs water. Socialists, calling themselves environmentalist want to shut down the State and its economy. Since they can’t pass laws to do it, they go to court and hold up the creation of new water facilities for years. They get their way and we get higher prices for food and the loss of jobs.
“Environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Water Resources Wednesday, claiming that the California State Water Project will harm endangered and threatened fish and the environment in the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River watersheds, as well as the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary.
The California State Water Project (SWP) is a system of reservoirs, aqueducts, power plants and pumping plants that delivers water to California. Its purpose is to provide water to California’s residents and farmland, and to control flooding. It also provides hydroelectric power for the state’s power grid. The SWP is the largest state-owned water and power system in the U.S., stretching over 705 miles from Northern to Southern California.
San Francisco Baykeeper, an environmental nonprofit, was joined by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, the Winnemem Wintu Tribe and six other plaintiffs in the lawsuit.”
This is the original lawfare—policy by lawsuit and extortion. California today.
Environmental groups claim California’s State Water Project will harm endangered fish and the environment
The California State Water Project is a system of reservoirs, aqueducts, power plants and pumping plants that delivers water to California.
Michael Gennaro, Courthousenews, 11/27/24 https://www.courthousenews.com/environmental-groups-claim-californias-state-water-project-will-harm-endangered-fish-and-the-environment/
(CN) — Environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Water Resources Wednesday, claiming that the California State Water Project will harm endangered and threatened fish and the environment in the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River watersheds, as well as the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary.
The California State Water Project (SWP) is a system of reservoirs, aqueducts, power plants and pumping plants that delivers water to California. Its purpose is to provide water to California’s residents and farmland, and to control flooding. It also provides hydroelectric power for the state’s power grid. The SWP is the largest state-owned water and power system in the U.S., stretching over 705 miles from Northern to Southern California.
San Francisco Baykeeper, an environmental nonprofit, was joined by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, the Winnemem Wintu Tribe and six other plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
“The operation of the project significantly degrades environmental conditions in the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River watersheds and San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary, including reduced flows, harm to endangered and threatened fish species and adverse modification of their critical habitat, worsened water quality, increased salinity levels, reduced food supply, and increased harmful algal blooms,” the plaintiffs say in their 74-page complaint filed in Sacramento Superior Court.
The plaintiffs claim that despite extensive evidence of negative impacts, the California Department of Water Resources “implausibly concluded” that operation of the State Water Project wouldn’t have a significant impact on the environment.
They say the project will especially harm the natural resources of the Bay-Delta and fisheries that include seven endangered or threatened species: Delta Smelt, Longfin Smelt, spring-run Chinook Salmon, winter-run Chinook Salmon, Central Valley Steelhead, White Sturgeon, and Green Sturgeon.
The harm, the plaintiffs say, will be caused by the California Department of Water Resources’ “failure to consider the flows necessary to ensure ecosystem health,” by prioritizing the delivery of water over the restoration of the ecosystem.
An environmental impact report for the long-term operation of the State Water Project also fails to provide full environmental disclosures and analysis required by the California Environmental Quality Act, the plaintiffs claim.
The act requires agencies to identify the potential environmental impacts of any project, and to avoid or reduce the impacts of any project on the environment if possible, as well as notify the public and decision makers of potential impacts.
The plaintiffs claim a 2023 draft staff report on the State Water Project’s impacts was improperly analyzed by Water Resourced Department, a failure that the plaintiffs say is “egregious.”
They say the report contained considerable information about the “crisis” facing certain fish species, and concluded that river flow increase was necessary.
The plaintiffs claim that the Department of Water Resources expressed concerns in January 2024 that the requirement to protect endangered and threatened fish species in the Delta could lead to reductions in freshwater diversions for the State Water Project’s exports.
The plaintiffs are seeking a writ of mandate and declaratory and injunctive relief directing the department to vacate its approval of the State Water Project, the findings for the project, and the certification of the Project’s environmental impact report, and to revise its findings to conform with the law.
Counsel for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and the California Department of Water Resources did not respond to a request for comment.
A separate, similar suit was also filed Wednesday in Sacramento Superior Court by other conservation groups, headed by the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. That suit also accuses the department of not properly considering the State Water Project’s impact on threatened and protected fish species.
