Legal News

Judge nixes delta pumping restriction delay

By Richard Binder

Five days after U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger put a two-week hold on water pumping restrictions, he rejected an emergency request by water districts representing cities and Valley farmers to delay a new set of pumping restrictions in the delta.

This meant one of the five delta pumps operated by the federal government was shut down yesterday at 7AM.  Now, according to Westlands spokeswoman Sarah Woolf, only four pumps will be running, which means a loss of 1,700 acre-feet of water each day for those who receive federal water.

The decision was made to protect the delta smelt, a fish listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. But environmentalists and fishing groups say the entire delta ecosystem and the industries that rely on its health are at risk.

Read the full story here.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on February 11, 2010 (boomark / email).