The Department of Justice and Department of the Interior have been negotiating a proposed settlement of drainage and water issues with Westlands Water District in secret. The proposed settlement would tie the hands of federal agencies, confer enormous benefit on Westlands, and would cause enormous adverse environmental effects on public waters including the San Joaquin River and the Delta. This would be done in the absence of public review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Endangered Species Act (ESA) and other federal laws.
“This secret process is in violation of federal laws such as NEPA that require public environmental impact analysis and consideration of a range of reasonable alternatives before rather than after government action,” said Friends of the River’s Senior Counsel Robert Wright.
In a status report filed by the Federal agencies in Firebaugh Canal Water District et al v. United States of America in April 2015 the government stated that “negotiators for the United States and Westland’s have completed work on a draft proposed settlement agreement, including technical appendices, and that this draft proposed settlement agreement is now under review at the Department of Justice.” The government has kept that draft settlement agreement secret so that its provisions are unknown to the public.
Friends of the River pointed out that “the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have previously concluded that the best solution to the drainage problem would be to retire 300,000 to about 400,000 acres in the Western San Joaquin Valley from irrigation. Instead, the government’s negotiations with Westlands appear headed toward producing the worst possible environmental outcome of continuing to irrigate lands producing enormous amounts of salt and selenium while allowing Westlands growers to establish in effect a permanent water supply for sale, as opposed to reducing exports as lands are and should be retired from irrigation.”
“It is time to have the proposed settlement fully evaluated in the public environmental, endangered species and critical habitat evaluation processes required by NEPA and the ESA,” said Eric Wesselman, Executive Director of Friends of the River. “In light of the current extreme drought further endangering fish and water supply and requiring sacrifices by millions of Californians, crafting a dream deal for Westlands in secret while ignoring public NEPA and ESA processes is beyond incomprehensible.”
The complete demand letter is available here.
http://www.friendsoftheriver.org/...