[SCE] [SCWaterCoalition] A New Court Ruling Could Threaten California’s Ability To Regulate Water Use Amid Drought | ThinkProgress

[alevine at mcn.org]

No not tress pass - Nuisance



> ==========================
> Sonoma Coast Environmental
> ==========================
> And shouldn't a property owner be able to sue for trespass when someone
> pollutes their water?
>
> Rick Coates
> Executive Director
> Forest Unlimited
> 707-632-6070 or rcoates at sonic.net
>
> Please consider the environment before printing this email
>
> ”It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.”
> ---Ben Franklin
>
> On Jul 14, 2015, at 12:45 PM, Rue Furch wrote:
>
>> ==========================
>> Sonoma Coast Environmental
>> ==========================
>>> From a friend in the Bay Area (love him!):  If water rights are
>>> property rights, shouldn't the owners be paying property taxes?
>>
>> enjoy,
>> Rue
>>
>>
>> On Jul 14, 2015, at 9:08 AM, Rue Furch pqrst at monitor.net
>> [SCWaterCoalition] wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> This will cause all manner of ripples ... (none in actual water)
>>>
>>> Have a great week,
>>> Rue
>>>
>>> http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/07/13/3679659/california-water-court-decision/
>>>
>>> CLIMATE
>>> A New Court Ruling Could Threaten California’s Ability To Regulate
>>> Water Use Amid Drought
>>> BY NATASHA GEILING
>>> JUL 13, 2015 12:46PM
>>> CREDIT: AP/RICH PEDRONCELLI
>>> Sacramento County Superior Court Judge ShelleyAnne Chang told the State
>>> Water Board that it can’t enforce water cuts without first letting
>>> farmers and irrigation districts defend their water rights at a
>>> hearing. Water rights, Chang said, are essentially property rights, and
>>> taking them away without a hearing violates due process.On Friday, a
>>> California court issued a ruling that could hinder the state’s ability
>>> to issue mass water cuts amid its historic drought.
>>> “The practical implication is that the court has reminded the state
>>> board that water rights are a form of property rights, and they have to
>>> use a lot more care when they are trying to regulate them,” Jennifer
>>> Spaletta, an attorney with the Central Delta Water Agency, told the
>>> Associated Press.
>>> Four irrigation districts in California’s Central Valley, including the
>>> Central Delta Water Agency, filed a petition in late June alleging that
>>> the California State Water Board violated property rights by issuing
>>> curtailment notices to farmers without first holding a public hearing.
>>> California issued notices of curtailments to senior water rights
>>> holders — those with claims to the water dating before 1914 — in
>>> mid-June. Almost immediately, several affected water districts filed
>>> lawsuits challenging the curtailments.
>>> Chang sided with the plaintiffs, issuing a temporary restraining order
>>> on the curtailments.
>>> “The curtailment letters 
 result in a taking of petitioners’ property
>>> rights without a pre-deprivation hearing, in violation of petitioners’
>>> due process rights,” Chang wrote in her ruling. She disagreed with the
>>> state’s argument that curtailment notices were just notices, not
>>> technically orders, and therefore don’t require hearings. That line of
>>> reasoning, she wrote, is “not only misguided, it is also inaccurate.”
>>> Following the ruling, the State Water Board issued a statement calling
>>> the order “limited in scope.” The curtailment notices, the board
>>> maintains, are merely intended to alert water rights holders to the
>>> fact that there might not be enough water in the system to support all
>>> of their needs. Before issuing any fines, the board would hold
>>> hearings.
>>> The order, the board said, does not impact the state’s ability to
>>> enforce water cuts, or crack down on those who divert water illegally.
>>> “While the order finds fault with the language of the notice, the order
>>> states: ‘To be clear, [the Water Board and its staff] are free to
>>> exercise their statutory authority to enforce the water code as to any
>>> water user, including these petitioners, if it deems them to be in
>>> violation of any provisions of the water code, so long as the bases for
>>> said action are not the Curtailment Letters,'” the board said in an
>>> emailed statement.
>>> But lawyers for the irrigation districts — and some legal experts not
>>> involved with the case — say that the court’s ruling throws curtailment
>>> notices across the state into question. While Friday’s case deals with
>>> dozens of farmers in the Central Valley, California has issued
>>> thousands of curtailment notices this year. Stuart Somach, a water-law
>>> attorney not involved in the case, told the Sacramento Bee that the
>>> ruling could impact “everybody that received a curtailment order” from
>>> the State Water Board.
>>> “I’m not suggesting that [the ruling] has a binding effect on every
>>> other letter that was issued,” Steve Herum, an attorney whose firm
>>> represented the West Side Irrigation District in the case, told the Los
>>> Angeles Times. “But it should cause the state agency to pause at least.
>>> And I would not be surprised if one or more recipients may rely on this
>>> opinion to say that the letter has an unconstitutional impediment in
>>> it.”
>>> Nearly a dozen irrigation districts have sued the State Water Board,
>>> according to the Sacramento Bee, with many arguing that the board
>>> doesn’t have jurisdiction to limit pre-1914 water rights. Chang’s
>>> decision on Friday did little to clarify that point of contention,
>>> though she did order further hearings on the issue of curtailment
>>> letters for the end of the month.
>>>
>>>
>>> __._,_.___
>>> Posted by: Rue Furch <pqrst at monitor.net>
>>>
>>>
>>> VISIT YOUR GROUP
>>> • Privacy • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use
>>>
>>> __,_._,___
>>
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