Legal News

'Chinatown, on steroids'

By Richard Binder

That's how Bill Jennings, director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, refers to the current water situation in Kern County.

A lawsuit filed in Sacramento Superior Court this week seeks to recoup millions of dollars in taxpayer money that, according to a coalition of Delta farmers and environmentalists, was paid illegally to Kern County landowners who sold water to a failed Delta environmental protection program. The suit also aims to force landowners to return a giant underground reservoir to public ownership and to undo the Monterey Agreement, which the litigants say is enriching Kern's landowners to the detriment of the ecosystem.

The agreement gave landowners the underground reservoir and more reliable water supplies while also increasing the amount of water pumped out of the Delta, according to the suit. 

The state Department of Water Resources only recently completed the environmental approvals needed to complete transfer of the water bank. The suit wants to return the bank to state ownership.

Full story here.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on June 04, 2010 (boomark / email).