The Sierra Club filed a legal challenge Thursday seeking to halt a huge Colorado River conservation deal between the Biden administration and the powerful Imperial Irrigation District, saying that rare desert wildlife and low-income residents near the shores of the already-fast dwindling Salton Sea would be further harmed if concrete steps weren’t taken immediately. The environmental group on Thursday filed a request for an injunction in California Superior Court in Imperial County, saying both the water agency and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation had violated a tough state environmental law, the California Environmental Quality Act, by rushing through cursory approvals to conserve as much as 900,000 acre feet of water through 2026 — more than the entire state of Nevada receives annually, and enough to potentially supply 2.7 million households.

Related Colorado River articles:

• Las Vegas Sun News: Conservation agency presents Colo. River project updates to Senate
• Aspen Public Radio: State money for clean energy coming to the Colorado River Valley
• Ripon Advance: More resources would be targeted to Lower Colorado River program under Calvert’s bill