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Less water, more lawsuits

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This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

If only you could turn lawsuits into water.

Users of the State Water Project recently filed a suit challenging water pumping cutbacks from Northern California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta -- limits that were ordered by a federal judge in an older lawsuit brought by environmentalists.

The new action contends that a federal biological opinion containing the restrictions doesn’t take proper account of other factors in the decline of the delta smelt, a once abundant tiny fish that is swimming into oblivion.

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Mind you, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued that opinion after the judge threw out an earlier one that found the delta’s pumping operations would not jeopardize the smelt’s continued existence.

San Joaquin Valley farms and Southern California cities are chafing under the pumping cutbacks, which combined with drought conditions, have pinched water deliveries.

--Bettina Boxall

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