Blog: Temporary Restraining Order Granted in Lawsuit Challenging Reclamation’s Planned Supplemental Releases from Lewiston Dam
From the KMTG [Kronick Moskovitz Tiedemann & Girard] Natural Resources Blog:
“On August 13, 2013, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) prohibiting the Bureau of Reclamation from releasing into the Trinity River up to 109,000 acre-feet of water from storage in the federal Central Valley Project’s (CVP) Trinity and Lewiston reservoirs between August 13 and Sept. 30, 2013.
The TRO follows the filing of a Complaint on August 7, 2013, by the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority and Westlands Water District (Plaintiffs) challenging the Reclamation’s decision to make Trinity River storage releases above and beyond the existing 453,000 acre-feet of releases dedicated to fall-run Chinook salmon fishery restoration and maintenance in 2013.
Reclamation had described the additional 109,000 acre-feet of excess releases as needed for fall-run Chinook salmon located below the confluence of the Trinity River and Klamath River (i.e., lower Klamath River). …
“The TRO was issued despite opposition by federal defendants and defendant-intervenors (Hoopa Valley Tribe, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, and Institute for Fisheries Resources).”
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Learn more about the Central Valley Project on Water Education Foundation’s Aquapedia