A federal judge in Fresno on Wednesday took issue with a federal government effort to push encroaching salt water back in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to help the threatened delta smelt.
U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger, however, didn't totally scrap the effort.
Instead, he found that there is support to keep encroaching saltwater west of the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers.
Both environmentalists and advocates for farmers and other water users found something to like in the ruling.
Fresno Bee, 8/31/11. Judge Wanger's 8/31/11 decision and the Pacific Legal Foundation's analysis is available at the PLF website. [Added 9/5/11]: And here's another view of the decision from Nossaman, LLP's Endangered Species Law & Policy, 9/1/11; see also Stockton Record, 9/3/11; Hanford Sentinel, 9/3/11.