San Francisco Baykeeper v. California Department of Water Resources

In two cases filed in California Superior Court challenging approval of a plan for the long-term operation of the California State Water Project, the petitioners raised climate change-related claims. The project allows an increase in the amount of water exported from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. One set of petitioners, led by the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, <a href="https://climatecasechart.com/case/california-sportfishing-protection-alliance-v-california-department-of-water-resources/">asserted</a> causes of action under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the 2009 Delta Reform Act, the California Endangered Species Act, and the public trust doctrine. The CEQA cause of action included allegations that the environmental review failed to disclose the project’s potential impacts during foreseeable sea level rise. The petition alleged that this failure “obscures an enormous potential impact: that the intakes for the State Water Project’s Delta diversions might be rendered useless due to inundation by saline waters as rising sea levels push upstream.” In the proceeding filed by San Francisco Baykeeper, other environmental groups, and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, the petition asserted claims under the Delta Reform Act, CEQA, and the public trust doctrine. The CEQA allegations included that the Department of Water Resources had failed to provide “a realistic analysis … of how bad the Project, coupled with climate change-caused droughts, reduced streamflow, and increased sea level rise, will be for the Delta environment including imperiled fish species.” In addition, the petition alleged that the environmental impact report did not adequately discuss and analyze “California’s over-appropriated water rights system” or “the implications of impending climate change on future water deliveries for the Project.” The petitioners contended more generally that the CEQA review did not adequately address the Project’s foreseeable cumulative impacts on the San Francisco Bay-Delta watershed “in light of future climate change, particularly with regards to water supplies in the context of sea level rise, changes in storm patterns, and watershed run-off.”