Jeanne Varga/Kern County Water Agency

Kern County Water Agency Statement on Federal Court Ruling Preventing Significant

Water Losses Jim Beck, general manager of the Kern County Water Agency, issued the following statement regarding Judge Oliver Wanger's decision regarding Fall X2:

Yesterday, the federal District Court for the Eastern District of California granted a preliminary injunction that blocked the implementation of the Fall X2 action, a regulatory measure that would have resulted in massive water loss throughout the state without any demonstrable benefit to the environment.

The Kern County Water Agency is encouraged by Judge Wanger's decision which underscores the need to base policies on sound science and complete data that present a comprehensive view of all factors affecting the Delta Smelt.

Based upon the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's 2008 biological opinion, FWS maintained that it would help preserve the Delta Smelt, a threatened species. In December 2010, Judge Wanger invalidated the biological opinion and directed FWS to revise it.

In yesterday's injunction, Judge Wanger ruled the 2008 biological opinion still "fail[s] to explain why it is essential to maintain X2 at 74 km and 81km respectively, as opposed to any other specific location." Judge Wanger instead ordered that the outflow requirement be modified to minimize the amount of Delta water lost to the ocean.

Wanger ended his ruling with a reminder to the federal defendants that Fall X2's protections of the Delta Smelt need to be adjusted depending on the year's rainfall. "The scientific evidence in support of imposing any Fall X2 action is manifestly equivocal. There is essentially no biological evidence to support the necessity of the specific 74 km requirement set to be triggered in this "wet" water year."

The 140-page ruling was timely, as Fall X2 was scheduled to begin today (Sept. 1). Had Fall X2 been implemented in full, as federal agencies had hoped, the State Water Project could have lost as much as 300,000 acre-feet of water if 2012 is a below normal or above normal water year for California, and as much as 670,000 acre-feet of water if 2012 turns out to be a dry year. This would have had a tremendous impact on the families, farms and businesses of California. By modifying the Fall X2 action, Wanger saved at least 210,000 acre-feet of water which can now be safely used by California's water contractors to deliver across the state.

The Agency remains committed to working toward a real solution that meets California's co-equal goals of improving water supplies and restoring the Delta.

The Kern County Water Agency (Agency) was created in 1961 by a special act of the State Legislature and serves as the local contracting entity for the State Water Project.