Eastern District of California Blog

Ninth Circuit Affirms EDCA Court In Rejecting Challenge To Forest Service Rules on User-Created Roads

In Friends of Tahoe Forest v. U.S. Forest Service, No. 14-15336, the Ninth Circuit yesterday affirmed Judge Mendez's grant of summary judgment in favor of the U.S Forest Service and other federal defendants on claims that they violated the National Environmental Policy Act in evaluating the environmental impacts regarding motor vehicle use on 869 miles of "user-created" roads and trails in the Tahoe National Forest.

EDCA Lawsuit Filed Over California Drought Management Plan

In a fresh challenge to California’s management of the drought, a group of environmentalists has sued state and federal officials, charging that they’re harming fish and wildlife in their efforts to deliver more water to farms and cities.

A group led by the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance announced Thursday it has sued the State Water Resources Control Board, state Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, saying they’ve redirected water to human needs at the expense of Chinook salmon, Delta smelt and other endangered species.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, comes less than a week after the water board issued an order temporarily curbing the flow of water from Lake Shasta to farms and cities. The board decided it needs to keep more water in Shasta to cool the reservoir’s temperature and thereby protect the winter-run Chinook salmon, whose population needs cool water to survive.

 

Sac Bee, 6/4/15

EDCA Court Refuses To Dismiss Claim Over Lake Tahoe Logging

A federal judge refused to dismiss a professor's claim that the U.S. Forest Service is damaging the Lake Tahoe watershed by clearing timber and brush and depositing the slash in streams and wetlands.

U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell Jr. ruled Tuesday that the Forest Service's argument was based upon faulty evidence and that plaintiff Dennis Murphy, Ph.D., did not waive his legal challenge to the Upper Echo Lakes Hazardous Fuels Reduction Projection by failing to comment during a public comment period.

Courthouse News, 4/3/15

Environmentalists Sue Forest Service Over Rim Fire Logging

Environmentalists filed a lawsuit Thursday against a federal agency, saying it aims to protect the California spotted owl living in the burned forests marked for logging after the third-largest wildfire in state history.

The Center for Biological Diversity and two other groups seek an injunction against the U.S. Forest Service, which unveiled a plan last week to allow logging on 52 square miles of forest killed in the massive central California blaze. The Rim Fire started Aug. 17, 2013, and scorched 400 square miles of the Stanislaus National Forest, Yosemite National Park's backcountry and private timber land.

Fresno Bee, 9/4/14

En Banc Ninth Circuit Reverses EDCA Court 11-0 In Delta Smelt Case

In NRDC v. Salazar, No. 09-17661, the Ninth Circuit, sitting en banc, unanimously reversed two of former Judge Wanger's rulings in the delta smelt cases. Here's the start of the (unofficial) summary at the beginning of the opinion:

The en banc court reversed the district court's judgment in favor of federal defendants in an action brought by environmental groups concerning long-term water contracts the federal Bureau of Reclamation entered pertaining to California’s Central Valley Project, the threatened delta smelt, and the requirement under Section 7(a)(2) of the Endangered Species Act that federal agencies must consult with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service prior to taking any agency action that could affect an endangered or threatened species or its critical habitat.

More coverage: NRDC press release; KCCP 80.3 Blog; and Fresno Bee.

TRPA Wins Lawsuit Over Regional Plan

A federal court has ruled in favor of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, affirming an update to the Lake Tahoe Regional Plan that was adopted in December 2012.

In February 2013, the Sierra Club and Friends of the West Shore filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Sacramento to stop the Regional Plan from taking effect in its entirety.

U.S. District Court Judge John Mendez on Monday said the agency could keep the document in place.

MyNews4, 4/7/14

Ninth Circuit Upholds Plan To Protect Delta Smelt

A federal appeals court in San Francisco on Thursday upheld the science used in fish protection plans that sometimes cut back water pumping for San Joaquin Valley farmers and Southern California cities.  [Opinion available here]

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision overturned a 2010 lower court ruling from Fresno, which had held that protections for the delta smelt in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta were not supported in science.

The decision in Fresno would have forced a rewrite of 2008 protections for the threatened smelt, but there were no assurances that more water would have been made available.

The Natural Resources Defense Council and the Bay Institute had appealed the Fresno ruling from U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger. On Thursday, environmentalists applauded the appeals court.

"The decision today rejects the notion that water interests can buy a lot of scientific help to go over every fly speck of the science," said lawyer Trent Orr of legal watchdog Earthjustice, which represented the environmental groups. "The smelt protections should be judged on their merits and the science in the record."

Fresno Bee, 3/13/14

PLF Attorney Discusses Duarte Farms v. Army Corp of Engineers Suit

Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Tony Francois discusses his EDCA lawsuit here, in which he represents Duarte Nursery and its president John Duarte against the Army Corps of Engineers in a dispute over a farm's need for a wetlands permit.  

EDCA Court Rules Forest Service Must Amend--Not Vacate--Plan For Sierra Nevada Region

The U.S. Forest Service must review how its amended project plan for the Sierra Nevada region will affect individual fish species, a federal judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Morrison England refused to vacate the entire plan based on a "relatively minor" error under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

The Forest Service's 2004 Sierra Nevada Forest Plan Amendment, also referred to as the 2004 framework," amended plans for 11 national forests covering 11.5 million acres in the Sierra Nevada region. It includes plans for more logging, more road construction, and an increase in green- and salvage-timber harvesting in the forests.

 Courthouse News, 5/1/13

EDCA Court Dismisses DWP Lawsuit Over Owens Lake Dust

A federal court judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power against a state regulatory agency it claimed was forcing the city to waste billions of gallons of precious High Sierra water to control dust on dry Owens Lake.

In his 21-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Anthony W. Ishii determined that “there is no reason or logic” to key arguments in the DWP lawsuit, which was publicly supported by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the Los Angeles City Council and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Fresno accused the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District of issuing unreasonable and unlawful orders. It was prompted by Great Basin’s 2011 order that the city control dust on an additional 2.9 square miles of lake bed, a job that could cost ratepayers another $400 million.

LA Times, 5/2/13