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Sierra Club Lawsuits

Second Victory Over Friant Dam and Restoration of the San Joaquin River

Case Updates:

July 29, 2005

Sierra Club and its allies have won a second major victory in the ongoing campaign to restore the San Joaquin River. Federal Judge Lawrence Karlton found in late July that water diversion contracts at Friant Dam jeopardized the existence of sensitive wildlife, including endangered salmon. Judge Karlton dismissed the government’s faulty reasoning, concluding that it had not truthfully considered the environmental impacts of completely draining the river. The contracts in question were issued in 2001, and allow 60 miles of the San Joaquin—California’s second longest river—to remain completely dry. Last year the judge found that the Bureau of Reclamation had violated state and federal laws by allowing the river to dry up in the first place. The case now moves forward to consider options to bring back the river and its wildlife.

September 1, 2004

Federal judge Lawrence Karlton ruled in late August that the Bureau of Reclamation has been breaking the law for decades with the way it operates the Friant Dam near Fresno. Since the construction of the dam in 1940, the Bureau of Reclamation has consistently diverted the entire flow of the San Joaquin River to a system of irrigation canals. The environmental cost of the water diversion is that 50 miles of the river is nothing more than a dry bed, while another 100 miles of the river exists only by pumping water into the river from a neighboring delta. The lack of water has completely devastated local fisheries, including a run of Chinook salmon that once numbered over 100,000 returning spawners annually. In his decision ending the 16-year court case, Judge Karlton ruled that the government must take immediate steps to restore the entire river system. The restoration will be one of the most important environmental projects in California’s history and will help restore the fishery and provide more reliable drinking water for the 20 million people in the Bay Area and Southern California.

Details and Documents:

Order on Motion of Summary Judgement Relating to the Endangered Species Act
July 28, 2005, order of United States District Court of Columbia

Agencies ignored impact of water deal, judge rules
July 30, 2005, by Danny Walsh, Sacramento Bee

Judge rules irrigation contracts illegal; San Joaquin River diversions violate species act, he finds
July 30, 2005, by Glen Martin, San Francisco Chronicle

Feds erred in water pacts that keep San Joaquin dry, judge rules
July 29, 2005, by Don Thompson, Associated Press as published in Sacramento Bee