Westlands Water District v. United States

337 F.3d 1092
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJuly 31, 2003
DocketNo. 01-16987
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 337 F.3d 1092 (Westlands Water District v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Westlands Water District v. United States, 337 F.3d 1092 (9th Cir. 2003).

Opinion

OPINION

BETTY B. FLETCHER, Circuit Judge.

This action arises out of water allocations during water year 1994 in the San Luis Unit of the Central Valley Project, a federal water management project. Plaintiffs-appellants Westlands Water District (‘Westlands”) and San Benito County Water District (“San Benito”) appeal the district court’s order granting summary judgment in favor of defendants and defendant-intervenors concerning the United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation’s allocation of Central Valley Project water during periods of shortage. Plaintiffs-appellants allege that granting priority to a group of contrac[1095]*1095tors, intervenor-defendants San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors (“Exchange Contractors”), violated contracts between the water districts and the United States. Plaintiffs-Appellants seek injunctive and declaratory relief to prohibit distribution of water in contravention of their contracts. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm.

BACKGROUND

I. Factual Summary

A. Central Valley Project

The Central Valley Project (“CVP”) is “the largest federal water management project in the United States.” Central Delta Water Agency v. United States, 306 F.3d 938, 943 (9th Cir.2002). “[Ljocated in the Central Valley Basin of California, which is roughly 400 miles long by 120 miles wide, [it] includes the major watersheds of the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems.”1 Id. These two river valleys merge at the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta, where the waters mix and then flow through the Carquinez Strait into the San Francisco Bay, continuing to the Pacific Ocean. Id.; United States v. Gerlach Live Stock Co., 339 U.S. 725, 728, 70 S.Ct. 955, 94 L.Ed. 1231 (1950). The Sacramento River has almost twice as much water as the San Joaquin River but the Sacramento Valley has very little tillable soil, while about “three-fifths of the [San Joaquin] valley lies in the domain of the less affluent San Joaquin.” Gerlach Live Stock, 339 U.S. at 728, 70 S.Ct. 955; see also Dugan v. Rank, 372 U.S. 609, 612, 83 S.Ct. 999, 10 L.Ed.2d 15 (1963). To alter this imbalance and to make water available to the San Joaquin Valley, the state of California embarked on re-engineering its natural water distribution through the authorization of the Central Valley Project (“CVP”).2 United States took over administration of this project in 1935.3 Gerlach Live Stock, 339 U.S. at 728, 70 S.Ct. 955.

The CVP’s purpose is to “improv[e] navigation, regulatfe] the flow of the San Joaquin River and the Sacramento River, control ] floods, provid[e] for storage and for the delivery of the stored waters thereof, for the reclamation of arid and semiarid lands and lands of Indian reservations, and other beneficial uses, and for the generation and sale of electric energy.” Act of August 26, 1937, Pub.L. No. 75 392, 50 Stat. 844, 850. To accomplish the project’s purposes, CVP’s construction includes a [1096]*1096series of many dams, reservoirs, hydro-power generating stations, canals, electrical transmission lines, and other infrastructure. Gerlach Live Stock, 339 U.S. at 733, 70 S.Ct. 955.

The United States Bureau of Reclamation (“Bureau”), a division of the Department of the Interior, operates the CVP. The California State Water Resources Control Board grants permits for water appropriation from the CVP. The Bureau appropriates water from various sources and delivers it to permit holders for beneficial uses. Central Delta Water, 306 F.3d at 943.

1. San Luis Unit of the CVP

The San Luis Unit, one of the many water management units of the CVP, was authorized by the San Luis Act of 1960. Pub.L. No. 86-488, 74 Stat. 156 (June 3, 1960). The San Luis Unit, an integral part of the CVP, consists of the San Luis Dam and the San Luis Reservoir. The San Luis Reservoir was constructed to provide water to Merced, Fresno and King Counties, and is used to store surplus water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, for delivery to contractors such as West-lands and San Benito. The Tracy Pumping Plant pumps water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta into the Delta-Mendota Canal. The Delta-Mendota Canal, located south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, channels water along the west side of the San Joaquin Valley for use in the San Luis Unit and Reservoir. Westlands Water Dist. v. Patterson, 864 F.Supp. 1536, 1539 (E.D.Cal.1994) (Westlands III).

2. Friant Unit of the CVP

Around 1939, the Bureau took over construction of a dam on the San Joaquin River that eventually created Lake Miller-ton and the Friant Unit of the Central Valley Project.4 See Gerlach Live Stock Co., 339 U.S. at 728-29, 70 S.Ct. 955; Westlands III, 864 F.Supp. at 1539. The Friant Unit impounds the waters of the San Joaquin River at a dam constructed at Friant, California, approximately sixty miles upstream from Mendota, diverting a major portion of the flow of the San Joaquin River both to storage in Millerton Lake and into the Friant-Kern and Ma-dera Canals for delivery to local water users. Dugan, 372 U.S. at 612-13, 83 S.Ct. 999. The CVP also diverts water from the Sacramento River into the San Joaquin Valley to make additional water available for use in the San Joaquin Valley.

B. Exchange Contractors

To fulfill the purposes of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1937, the Secretary of the Interior was given the right to acquire water rights for the development of the CVP. Act of August 26, 1937, Pub.L. No. 75-392, 50 Stat. 844, 850. The Exchange Contractors5 hold both pre-1914 riparian and appropriative rights to the San Joaquin River. Cal. State Water Rights Bd. Dec. D-935, 80 (1959). The district court noted that the cooperation of the Exchange Contractors made possible the expansion of the CVP and the San Luis Unit. Westlands Water Dist. v. United States, 153 F.Supp.2d 1133, 1146-47 (E.D.Cal.2001) CWestlands VI ).6 To provide a reli[1097]*1097able source of water for its proposed canals, the Bureau had to assure that the Exchange Contractors’ pre-existing rights would be satisfied. Westlands III, 864 F.Supp. at 1539.

In 1939, the Exchange Contractors entered into two contracts with the United States: a Purchase Contract and an Exchange Contract. “Under the Purchase Contract, the Exchange Contractors sold all [of] their San Joaquin River water rights to the United States, except for ‘reserved water,’ water to which the Exchange Contractors [hold ] vested rights. Simultaneously, under the Exchange Contract, the Exchange Contractors agreed not to exercise their [reserved water] rights” to the San Joaquin River, so long as they receive certain volumes of substitute water.7 Id.

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