San Luis Unit Food Producers v. United States

MEMORANDUM DECISION RE DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR JUDGMENT ON THE PLEADINGS (DOC. 24) AND PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT (DOC. 17)

I. INTRODUCTION

This case concerns the ongoing operation of the San Luis Unit (the “Unit”) of the Central Valley Project (“CVP”). Plaintiffs, San Luis Unit Food Producers (“Food Producers”), an unincorporated association whose members include owners, operators, and managers of agricultural land in the Unit and their allied customers and suppliers, and various individuals and entities that own land and/or farm in the Unit, claim that various provisions of U.S. Reclamation law mandate that the Unit be operated to: (a) “provide farmers with irrigation water service” (Doc. 1, Compl. at ¶ 2); (2) “exercise the water rights obtained to divert, store, convey, and deliver the water necessary to irrigated project lands” (id. at ¶ 3); and (3) “sell project water to irrigators ... in order to recoup the costs of construction and operation and maintenance of water supply works providing irrigation” (id. at ¶ 4). Plaintiffs generally allege that the Department of the Interior and its Bureau of Reclamation (“Reclamation” or “Bureau”) (collectively, “Federal…