Description: Challenge to biological opinions for long-term operations of two major water diversion projects in California.
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California Natural Resources Agency v. Ross
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 03/14/2022 Order Download Order issued setting forth interim operations plan. 03/11/2022 Order Download Federal defendants' motion for remand without vacatur granted. California Federal Court Remanded Challenges to Biological Opinions for Water Diversion Projects. The federal district court for the Eastern District of California granted federal defendants’ motion for voluntary remand without vacatur in two cases challenging biological opinions issued regarding two major water diversion projects in California, the Central Valley and State Water Projects. The court also imposed an interim operations plan through the end of the 2022 water year in September 2022 while the federal defendants conduct a re-initiated consultation process. The court denied the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations’ request for alternative injunctive relief that would impose a different set of interim measures. The cases—which are stayed through the end of September 2022—involve alleged violations of the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act, including allegations that the analysis supporting the conclusions that the projects were not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of threatened and endangered fish species or to destroy or adversely modify their critical habitat did not adequately consider climate change impacts. 10/01/2021 Status Report Download Joint status report filed. 05/11/2020 Order Download Motions for preliminary injunction granted in part and denied in part. 04/21/2020 Complaint Download First amended complaint filed. -
California Natural Resources Agency v. Ross
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 03/20/2020 Order Download Case transferred to the Eastern District for the reasons set forth in order in Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations v. Ross, No. 3:19-cv-07897. 02/20/2020 Complaint Download Complaint filed. California Challenged Federal Endangered Species Act Determinations for Big Water Projects. California Natural Resources Agency, California Environmental Protection Agency, and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, as representative for the people of California, filed a lawsuit contending that federal agencies violated the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act when they adopted biological opinions finding that the Central Valley Project and State Water Project—the two largest water projects in California—were not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of threatened and endangered fish species or to destroy or adversely modify their critical habitat. The complaint alleged, among other things, that the final environmental impact statement (EIS) included new modeling of climate change scenarios that required further analysis. The plaintiffs asserted that the public and other agencies had not been given an opportunity to comment on the updated modeling. The complaint also alleged that the EIS failed to take the required hard look at the consequences of extreme climate events even though it acknowledged that the frequency and magnitude of such events would increase. -
Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations v. Ross
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 03/20/2020 Order Download Motion to transfer granted. Challenges to Federal Determinations on California Water Diversion Projects Transferred from Northern to Eastern District. The federal district court for the Northern District of California transferred to the Eastern District of California two cases challenging federal adoption in 2019 of biological opinions for long-term operations of two major water diversion projects in California¬—the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project. One case was brought by six environmental organizations and the other by California agencies and the attorney general. The plaintiffs alleged, among other things, that the federal agencies—the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service—failed to consider the projects’ impacts in the context of climate change when the agencies determined that the projects would not jeopardize the continued existence of threatened and endangered fish species or destroy or adversely modify the species’ critical habitat. The court concluded that the Eastern District’s local interests in the case (e.g., the presence of the reservoirs and critical habitat in the Eastern District) and considerations of judicial economy (another case concerning the projects was pending in the Eastern District) made transfer appropriate. 02/24/2020 Complaint Download First amended complaint filed. 12/02/2019 Complaint Download Complaint filed. Plaintiffs Said Biological Opinions Failed to Fully Consider California Water Diversion Projects’ Impacts in Context of Climate Change. A lawsuit filed in the federal district court for the Northern District of California challenged biological opinions issued regarding the Central Valley and State Water Projects. The plaintiffs alleged that the water diversion projects “have caused devastating environmental impacts and have contributed to severe declines in California’s native fish species” and that “the biological opinions … were blatantly and improperly shaped by political motivations and authorize Water Project operations that will cause grave harm to species and their critical habitat, increasing the risk of extinction of endangered and threatened salmon, steelhead, and Delta Smelt.” Among the issues identified in the complaint was that the federal agencies allegedly failed to consider the full extent of the projects’ operations long-term impacts in the context of climate change.