San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority v. United States Department of Interior

MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER RE CROSS MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT RE (B) (2) ACCOUNTING FOR 2004(B) (2) ACCOUNTING YEAR

I. INTRODUCTION

Before the court for decision are the November 19, 2007 cross-motions for summary judgment on all claims raised by the supplemental complaint of San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority (“Authority”) and Westlands Water District (“West-lands”) (collectively, “Plaintiffs”). (Docs. 680 & 685.) The supplemental complaint raises an as-applied challenge to the manner by which two branches of the Department of the Interior, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (“Bureau”) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“FWS”) (collectively, “Federal Defendants” or “Interior”), implemented accounting procedures pursuant to Section 3406(b)(2) (“Section (b)(2)” or “(b)(2)”) of the Central Valley Improvement Act (“CVPIA”), Pub. L. No. 102-575, 106 Stat. 470o, 4714 (1992), during the 2004(b)(2) accounting year. (Doc. 646.)

Specifically, Plaintiffs allege that Federal Defendants acted unlawfully by not crediting certain uses of CVP water during the 2004 water year toward the statutory mandate, set forth in Section 3406(b)(2), to allocate 800,000 acre-foot (“AF”) of CVP…