A North State water agency has filed suit in federal court in Sacramento based on a 77-year-old state law that says water shall not be shipped from its area of origin unless and until the local water contractors’ thirsts have been quenched.
Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority represents the local contractors, 16 water districts in Glenn, Tehama, Colusa and Yolo counties. In its suit the TCCA charges that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has failed to follow a law passed in 1933 in connection with the creation of the Central Valley Project, then a state-sponsored undertaking. The project, which includes Shasta Dam, was designed to protect the valley from water shortages and floods. But in practice, it transports about 8 million acre-feet of water a year from the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems to the San Joaquin Valley.