Westlands Water Dist. v. US Dept. of Interior
| Decision Date | 04 November 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. CV-F-92-5212 OWW.,CV-F-92-5212 OWW. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of California |
| Parties | WESTLANDS WATER DISTRICT; San Benito Water District, Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES of America, DEPARTMENT of INTERIOR, BUREAU of RECLAMATION; Roger K. Patterson, Regional Director Mid-Pacific Region, United States of America, Department of Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Defendants, Friant Water Users Authority; the City of Fresno; Madera Irrigation District; City of Orange Cove; Stone Corral Irrigation District; Florencio Ming-Ming; and Ronald Davis; and Firebaugh Canal Water District; Central California Irrigation District; San Luis Canal Company; Columbia Canal Company; and Friant Power Authority, Intervenors. |
Thomas William Birmingham, Kronick, Moskovitz, Tiedemann & Girard, Sacramento, Cal., for plaintiffs.
Michael A. Gheleta, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Environment & Natural Res. Div., Sacramento, Cal., Michael Victor Sexton, Minasian, Minasian, Minasian, Spruance, Baber, Meith & Soares, Oroville, Cal., Gregory K. Wilkinson, Best, Best & Krieger, Riverside, Cal., for defendants.
Plaintiffs Westlands Water District and San Benito County Water District seek injunctive and declaratory relief in this dispute over water allocations made by the Bureau of Reclamation ("Bureau") during the late winter of 1991 and spring of 1992, the sixth consecutive drought year in California. The relief sought cannot be granted under the allegations of the complaint or any variation which plaintiffs could allege, as plaintiffs have neither statutory nor contractual priority to claim higher rights in Central Valley Project water stored in the San Luis Unit over other water contractors.
The Central Valley Project ("CVP") is operated by the Bureau as authorized by various acts of Congress. It consists of a number of facilities which store and distribute water throughout California's Central Valley. Friant Dam, which impounds water from the San Joaquin River in Millerton Lake, was one of the initial CVP facilities constructed. Prior to construction of the dam it was necessary for the Bureau to enter into water rights settlement contracts with downstream riparian water rights holders on the San Joaquin River. Four of these riparian holders are intervenors, Firebaugh Canal Water District, Central California Irrigation District, San Luis Canal Company and Columbia Canal Company (the "Exchange Contractors").
The first of these contracts was signed in 1939 (the "Exchange Contract").1 Under the Exchange Contract, the Exchange Contractors agreed not to assert their senior water rights by demanding upstream water from the San Joaquin River. For its part, the United States, as holder of an appropriative right, agreed to provide the Exchange Contractors with substitute appropriative water delivered from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta via the Delta-Mendota Canal.
The San Luis Unit of the CVP was authorized by the San Luis Act in 1960,2 for the principal purpose of furnishing water for the irrigation of land in Merced, Fresno and Kings Counties. The San Louis Reservoir is a principal component of the unit. To implement the San Luis Act, the Bureau entered into contracts for the provision of water service to agricultural contractors including Westlands and San Benito. The Westlands Contract was executed in 1963,3 while the San Benito Contract was executed in 1978.4 The San Luis Reservoir stores Northern California surplus water imported through the Delta for delivery to contractors such as Westlands and San Benito.
On February 14, 1992, in response to the continuing drought which had left water levels in the CVP reservoir near an all-time low, the Bureau's regional director, Roger K. Patterson, a named defendant, issued a declaration finding a shortage for water year 1992 and allocating no water to certain agricultural contractors, including plaintiffs. The regional director revised the declaration on March 8, 1992 and again on March 19, 1992, allocating fifteen, and then twenty-five, percent water supply to agricultural contractors.
Plaintiffs allege, and defendants admit, that the Bureau intended to divert water stored in the San Luis Reservoir in early 1992 to meet its contractual obligations to the Exchange Contractors.5 Plaintiffs contend that the Bureau, pursuant to the terms of the Exchange Contract, when unable to deliver substitute water as required, must release water not from San Luis Reservoir, but from Millerton Lake.
Plaintiffs' complaint seeks injunctive relief under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 701 et seq. The complaint alleges that (1) the Bureau's intended diversion of water stored in the San Luis Reservoir violates the provisions of the San Luis Act and the Westlands and San Benito Contracts; (2) the Bureau lacks the authority to divert the water stored in the San Luis Reservoir; and (3) the amount of water stored in the San Luis Reservoir at the time of the filing of the complaint was sufficient to supply water to plaintiffs in an amount exceeding fifteen percent,6 thus making the Bureau's decision to divert this water to the Exchange Contractors, while maintaining fifteen percent allocations to plaintiffs, arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion. Plaintiffs also seek a judicial declaration of the Bureau's contractual obligations to allocate water stored in the San Luis Reservoir during a shortage.
Two sets of parties have intervened as defendants (collectively, the "Intervenors"). The Exchange Contractors, along with the Friant Power Authority, argue that their contractual rights would be harmed by the issuance of an injunction restricting the Bureau's ability to supply them water from the San Luis Reservoir. Several users of water from Millerton Lake have also intervened,7 contending that an interpretation of the Exchange Contract requiring the Bureau to supply substitute water from Millerton Lake would harm their ability to use the lake as a water source. Both sets of intervenors have filed answers. The Millerton Lake intervenors filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings in which the Exchange Contractors joined. The United States has filed a motion to dismiss under F.R.C.P. 12(b)(6). The Intervenors have joined in this motion. These motions must be granted for the reasons that follow.
A motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim under F.R.C.P. 12(b)(6) "is viewed with disfavor and is rarely granted." Hall v. City of Santa Barbara, 833 F.2d 1270, 1274 (9th Cir.1986), cert. denied, 485 U.S. 940, 108 S.Ct. 1120, 99 L.Ed.2d 281 (1988) (quoting 5 C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice & Procedure, Civil § 1357, at 598 (1969)). "A complaint should not be dismissed for failure to state a claim unless it appears beyond a doubt that the Plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief." Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 102, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957).
In deciding a motion to dismiss, the court "must accept as true all material allegations in the complaint and construe them in the light most favorable to" the plaintiff. NL Industries, Inc. v. Kaplan, 792 F.2d 896, 898 (9th Cir.1986). Yet, the court need not accept as true allegations that contradict facts which may be judicially noticed. Mullis v. United States Bankruptcy Ct., 828 F.2d 1385, 1388 (9th Cir. 1987), cert. denied, 486 U.S. 1040, 108 S.Ct. 2031, 100 L.Ed.2d 616 (1988). For example, the court may consider matters of public record including pleadings, orders, and other papers filed with the court or records of administrative bodies. Mack v. South Bay Beer Distributors, Inc., 798 F.2d 1279, 1282 (9th Cir.1986). The court need not accept conclusory allegations, nor unreasonable inferences or unwarranted deductions of fact. Western Mining Council v. Watt, 643 F.2d 618, 624 (9th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 1031, 102 S.Ct. 567, 70 L.Ed.2d 474 (1981). In addition, the court may disregard allegations in the complaint if contradicted by facts established by exhibits attached to the complaint. Durning v. First Boston Corp., 815 F.2d 1265, 1267 (9th Cir.1987).
A Rule 12(c) motion challenges the legal sufficiency of the opposing party's pleadings. Judgment on the pleadings is appropriate when, even if all material facts in the pleading under attack are true, the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Hal Roach Studios v. Richard Feiner & Co., 883 F.2d 1429, 1436 (9th Cir.1989). The court must assume the truthfulness of the material facts alleged in the complaint. All inferences reasonably drawn from these facts must be construed in favor of the responding party. General Conference Corp. of Seventh-Day Adventists v. Seventh Day Adventist Congregational Church, 887 F.2d 228, 230 (9th Cir. 1989), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 1079, 110 S.Ct. 1134, 107 L.Ed.2d 1039 (1990).
The standards for judicial review of agency actions under the Administrative Procedure Act (the "APA") were summarized by the Supreme Court in Citizens to Preserve Overton Park, Inc. v. Volpe, 401 U.S. 402, 415-417, 91 S.Ct. 814, 823-824, 28 L.Ed.2d 136 (1971):
The court is first required to decide whether the Secretary acted within the scope of his authority. This determination naturally begins with the delineation of the scope of the Secretary's authority and discretion ... Section 706(2)(A) requires a finding that the actual choice made was not "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law." To make this finding the court must consider whether the decision was based on a consideration of the relevant factors and whether there has been a clear error of judgment. Although this inquiry into the facts is to be searching and...
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