Natural Resources Defense Council v. Kempthorne

506 F. Supp. 2D 332 (2007)

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Natural Resources Defense Council v. Kempthorne

United States District Court for the Eastern District of California
506 F. Supp. 2D 332 (2007)

  • Written by Tammy Boggs, JD

Facts

An ongoing federally managed water project (the project) diverted large volumes of water from the California Bay Delta (the delta) and used the delta to store water. The delta smelt was a threatened species of fish that thrived in low-level salinity and died off at higher salinity levels. The smelt population had declined to its lowest reported volume in 2004 due in part to higher salination levels caused by diverted waters. In 2005, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) (defendant) issued a biological opinion (BiOp) pursuant to the Endangered Species Act (ESA), concluding that certain planned and future project operations would not jeopardize the continued existence of the delta smelt or adversely modify its critical habitat. The BiOp’s findings relied on a variety of measures intended to alleviate the effects of water diversion, such as moving the delta smelt to another region though the smelt probably would not survive the move or employing tools to become alerted to the potential need to alter water flows to the delta region or take other remedial action. None of the tools assuredly produced favorable water flows. The BiOp did not address the effect of global climate change on the delta smelt and its critical habitat. A coalition of environmental and fishing organizations (the coalition) (plaintiff) sued the government, challenging the BiOp’s findings as arbitrary and capricious. The coalition moved for summary adjudication.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Wanger, J.)

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