Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations v. Ross

The federal district court for the Northern District of California transferred to the Eastern District of California two cases challenging federal adoption in 2019 of biological opinions for long-term operations of two major water diversion projects in California¬—the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project. One case was brought by six environmental organizations and the other by California agencies and the attorney general. The plaintiffs alleged, among other things, that the federal agencies—the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service—failed to consider the projects’ impacts in the context of climate change when the agencies determined that the projects would not jeopardize the continued existence of threatened and endangered fish species or destroy or adversely modify the species’ critical habitat. The court concluded that the Eastern District’s local interests in the case (e.g., the presence of the reservoirs and critical habitat in the Eastern District) and considerations of judicial economy (another case concerning the projects was pending in the Eastern District) made transfer appropriate.

A lawsuit filed in the federal district court for the Northern District of California challenged biological opinions issued regarding the Central Valley and State Water Projects. The plaintiffs alleged that the water diversion projects “have caused devastating environmental impacts and have contributed to severe declines in California’s native fish species” and that “the biological opinions … were blatantly and improperly shaped by political motivations and authorize Water Project operations that will cause grave harm to species and their critical habitat, increasing the risk of extinction of endangered and threatened salmon, steelhead, and Delta Smelt.” Among the issues identified in the complaint was that the federal agencies allegedly failed to consider the full extent of the projects’ operations long-term impacts in the context of climate change.