Ninth Circuit won’t rehear delta smelt defenders’ challenge to Central Valley Project water contracts
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday said it won’t rehear a challenge to long-term water contracts with California’s Central Valley Project brought by a group of environmental organizations concerned about the welfare of endangered delta smelt. After a three-judge panel denied the organizations’ appeal in May, none of the circuit’s other judges asked for a vote to bring the petition before an 11-judge panel, the San Francisco-based appellate court said. The denial of a rehearing may very well mean the end of the almost 20-year-old lawsuit over the renewal in 2005 of the long-term contracts between U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the Central Valley Project, the largest federal water management project in the United States, and agricultural, municipal and industrial water users who hold senior water rights to the Sacramento River.
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