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Analysis: Court releases tentative ruling that would invalidate the Colorado River Quantification Settlement Agreement

Posted by: Maven on December 24, 2009 at 7:58 am

From Eric W. Davis at Somach Simmons & Dunn:

“On December 10, 2009, Judge Roland L. Candee of the Sacramento Superior Court issued a tentative ruling that, if adopted, would invalidate a series of accords that were intended to resolve disputes over the allocation of water from the Colorado River. The court’s ruling could jeopardize a whole network of agreements and water transfers executed in 2003 that would have reduced California’s reliance on the waters of the Colorado River.

Background

Colorado River water supplies, which are allocated among several western states by the 1922 Colorado River Compact (CRC), have come under increasing pressure in recent decades thanks to drought and increasing population in the West. One particular source of tension has been the consumption of Colorado River water within the state of California, where growers and municipalities in the southern part of the state regularly use more than the 4.4 million acre-feet allocated to the state under the CRC. In 2003, Colorado water users and the federal government entered into an accord known as the “Quantification Settlement Agreement” (QSA) and a series of related agreements and water transfers intended to resolve conflicts over water supply and to bring California’s consumption back within its allocation under the CRC. The QSA was hailed by then Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton as the “resolution of issues that have been unresolved for more than 70 years.”

Resolution, however, proved to be fleeting. … “

Continue reading at the Somach Simmons & Dunn website by clicking here.

December 24, 2009 · Filed Under Imperial Valley, Salton Sea

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