Center for Biological Diversity v. United States Bureau of Reclamation

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

10 CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY; No. 1:20-cv-00706-DAD-EPG RESTORE THE DELTA; and PLANNING

AND CONSERVATION LEAGUE, ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO

COMPEL JOINDER OF ABSENT Plaintiffs, CONTRACTORS; AND GRANTING

UNOPPOSED MOTION TO AMEND

v.

UNITED STATES BUREAU OF (Doc. Nos. 11, 14) RECLAMATION; SCOTT DE LA VEGA, in his official capacity as Acting Secretary of the Interior; and UNITED STATES

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

18 Defendants. 19 20 BACKGROUND In this lawsuit, plaintiffs challenge the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s (“Reclamation”) conversion of certain existing long-term federal “water service” contracts into permanent “repayment” contracts1 without first conducting any environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”). (Doc. No. 1.) Named as defendants in the initial complaint 26 Specifically, the initial complaint, filed May 20, 2020, lists fourteen (14) contracts that had been…