[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 7/3/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

July 3, 2007

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People

 

Districts contend judge's ruling doesn't hold water; peal filed over failure to deliver supplies

Stockton Record – 7/3/07

By Alex Breitler, staff writer

 

Stockton-area water officials have appealed a federal judge's ruling that the government cannot be held liable for water promised but rarely delivered.

 

In February, U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Christine O.C. Miller ruled against the Stockton East and Central San Joaquin water districts in a $500 million lawsuit against the Bureau of Reclamation.

 

The districts said the bureau failed to deliver water that had been promised in 1983 contracts. The districts built a $65 million tunnel to convey that water from the Stanislaus River toward the Stockton area, but in some years, none of that water was delivered.

 

Miller ruled that the government was justified due to drought in the mid-1990s and laws requiring water for fish in the Stanislaus River.

 

"We think the judge made some mistakes in interpreting the law," Kevin Kauffman, Stockton East's general manager, said Monday. "She also made some mistakes interpreting the evidence we provided her with."

 

The ruling wasn't a total defeat, Stockton East representatives have said. Deliveries have increased in more recent years. During this dry year, the districts will receive about 46,000 acre-feet of water from the federal government, about 30 percent of the contracted amount. The typical family uses one acre-foot of water over the course of a year.

 

Stockton East attorney Jennifer Spaletta said the appeal was filed Thursday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C.

 

It will be several months before hearings are scheduled, Spaletta said. #

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070703/A_NEWS/707030313

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