Westlands Water Dist. v. All Persons Interested

• Docket Number: F083632,F084202
• Decision Date: 07 August 2023
• Parties: WESTLANDS WATER DISTRICT, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. ALL PERSONS INTERESTED etc., et al., Defendants and Respondents.
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

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WESTLANDS WATER DISTRICT, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. ALL PERSONS INTERESTED etc., et al., Defendants and Respondents.

F083632, F084202

California Court of Appeals, Fifth District

August 7, 2023

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED

APPEALS from a judgment of the Superior Court of Fresno County No. 19CECG03887 Alan M. Simpson and D. Tyler Tharpe Judges.

Stradling Yocca Carlson &Rauth, Allison E. Burns and Douglas S. Brown for Plaintiff and Appellant.

Freeman Firm, Thomas H. Keeling; Law Office of Roger B. Moore, Roger B. Moore; Mohan Harris Ruiz and S. Dean Ruiz for Defendants and Respondents County of San Joaquin, County of Trinity, Central Delta Water Agency and South Delta Water Agency.

Law Offices of Stephan C. Volker, Stephan C. Volker, Alexis E. Krieg, Stephanie L. Clarke and Jamey M.B. Volker for Defendants and Respondents North

Coast Rivers Alliance, Winnemem Wintu Tribe, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Institute for Fisheries Resources, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, and San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association.

Law Office of Adam Keats, Adam Keats; and John Buse for Defendants and Respondents California Water Impact Network, California Indian Water Commission, AquAlliance, Planning and Conservation League, and Center for Biological Diversity.

OPINION

PENA, Acting P. J.

"An action under the validation statutes permits a public agency to obtain a judgment upholding its handling of an agency matter." (Davis v. Fresno Unified School Dist. (2023) 14 Cal.5th 671, 684.) Westlands Water District (Westlands) appeals from a judgment of dismissal entered in a validation action filed pursuant to, inter alia, Code of Civil Procedure section 860 et seq. The subject matter was an anticipated contract between Westlands and the United States concerning the ongoing delivery of federal reclamation project water and repayment of certain financial obligations.

We say "anticipated contract" because Westlands filed the action several months prior to executing a finalized agreement with the United States. Westlands presented the superior court with a working draft of the contract, requesting a judicial decree validating (1) the authorization given by its governing body to execute a contract "in substantially the [same] form" at a later date and (2) the legality and enforceability of the contract under California law. Several public entities, nonprofit organizations, public interest groups, and others participated in the lawsuit by opposing any and all such relief, making them the defendants in the action. The federal government is not a party to the case.^[1] The superior court declined to grant relief, and ultimately dismissed Westlands' validation action, for multiple reasons. Most pertinently, the draft was found to be materially deficient in its failure to specify Westlands' financial obligations under the anticipated contract. We affirm the judgment.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Overview

"California's two largest rivers, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin Rivers, meet to form a delta (California Delta or Delta) near the City of Sacramento, and their combined waters, if not diverted, flow through the Delta, Suisun Bay, and San Francisco Bay, to the Pacific Ocean. The flow of water through this region, commonly known as the Bay-Delta, forms the largest estuary on the West Coast of the United States. It is also the hub of California's two largest water distribution systems, supplying drinking water for two-thirds of California's residents and irrigation water for seven million acres of agricultural land." (In re Bay-Delta etc. (2008) 43 Cal.4th 1143, 1151.)

"In an effort to manage the increasing and conflicting demands placed on the water flowing through the [Bay-Delta] California and the United States have embarked on two massive projects. First, in 1933, California proposed the Central Valley Project (CVP), a plan to transfer water from the Sacramento River to water-deficient areas in the San Joaquin Valley and from the San Joaquin River to the southern regions of the Central Valley." (San Luis &Delta-Mendota Water Authority v. Jewell (9th Cir. 2014) 747 F.3d 581, 594.) "In 1951, California approved what is known as the State Water Project," which primarily "serves the domestic water needs" of Southern California. (Ibid.)

Due to "pervasive unfavorable economic conditions during the Great Depression, California turned to the federal government for assistance to finance and construct the CVP." (Westlands Water Dist. v. U.S. (E.D.Cal. 2001) 153 F.Supp.2d 1133, 1142.)

Acting pursuant to federal reclamation law, the United States "assumed the role of building and operating the CVP." (Ibid.) The project is currently administered by the Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau), an agency within the Department of the Interior. (San Luis Unit Food Producers v. U.S. (9th Cir. 2013) 709 F.3d 798, 800-801.) The federal government holds CVP water rights, and direct access to CVP water requires a contract with the Bureau. (Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority v. U.S. Department (9th Cir. 2013) 721 F.3d 1086, 1091; Westlands Water Dist. v. U.S., supra, at p. 1144; see In re BayDelta etc., supra, 43 Cal.4th at p. 1154 [noting the Bureau operates the CVP under rights granted by the California State Water Resources Control Board].)

The CVP is now "a system of dams, reservoirs, levees, canals, pumping stations, hydropower plants, and other infrastructure." (Orff v. United States (2005) 545 U.S. 596, 598.) "With total storage capacity of more than 12 million acre-feet, the CVP delivers approximately seven million acre-feet of water annually to over 250 water contractors, primarily for agricultural use in the Central Valley. [Citation.] The CVP '"supplies two hundred water districts, providing water for about thirty million people, irrigating California's most productive agricultural region and generating electricity at [numerous] powerplants."'" (North Coast Rivers Alliance v. Westlands Water Dist. (2014) 227 Cal.App.4th 832, 840.)

"The contemporary CVP consists of nine distinct geographic areas, known as 'divisions.' [Citation.] These are the: (1) Trinity; (2) Shasta; (3) Sacramento; (4) American River; (5) Delta; (6) Eastside; (7) San Felipe; (8) West San Joaquin; and (9) Friant Divisions." (Westlands Water Dist. v. U.S., supra, 153 F.Supp.2d at p. 1142.) Each division "has at least one subset 'unit,' which itself is comprised of various facilities, e.g., a dam and a power plant." (Id. at p. 1144.) For example, the West San Joaquin Division includes the San Luis Unit, which comprises "'the San Luis Dam and the San Luis Reservoir, together with a number of smaller facilities.'" (Id. at p. 1145, fn. omitted.) "Water from the San Luis Unit of the CVP is delivered to contractors," who in turn "provide water to the end users such as farmers on the west side of the Central Valley." (North Coast Rivers Alliance v. Westlands Water Dist., supra, 227 Cal.App.4th at p. 841.)

Appellant Westlands is a public agency formed "for the purpose of receiving CVP water and distributing that water to end users (i.e., farmers) for beneficial use (i.e., irrigation to grow crops) on lands within [its service area]." (North Coast Rivers Alliance v. Westlands Water Dist., supra, 227 Cal.App.4th at p. 839.) It is both "the largest contractor for water from the San Luis Unit" (Westlands Water Dist. v. U.S. (9th Cir. 2003) 337 F.3d 1092, 1097) and the largest of all CVP contractors in the state. Westlands delivers CVP water to over 600,000 acres of farmland in Fresno and Kings Counties.

Respondents are a diverse group of litigants with shared concerns about the environmental impacts of various CVP operations. "Competition for the Bay-Delta's resources, pollution of Bay-Delta water, draining and filling of tidal marshes and other wetlands, and diversion of Bay-Delta water for urban and agricultural uses throughout the state have ... resulted in a decline in Bay-Delta wildlife habitat, the threatened extinction of plant and animal species, an increasing risk of failure of Bay-Delta levees, and degradation of the Bay-Delta as a reliable source of high quality water." (In re Bay-Delta etc., supra, 43 Cal.4th at p. 1151.) "Water quality and land use conflict because water returned to the Bay-Delta after urban and agricultural use contains pollutants and contaminants that degrade water quality." (Id. at p. 1158.) "The pollutants of upstream urban and agricultural uses cause problems for downstream fish and water diverters alike." (Delta Stewardship Council Cases (2020) 48 Cal.App.5th 1014, 1035.)

Respondents allege that Westlands' operations harm fish and wildlife and "exacerbate[] the existing contamination of the soils, groundwater and surface waters of the San Joaquin Valley and downstream."^[2] These allegations are heavily emphasized in some of the briefing, but this appeal is resolved on other grounds and we express no views regarding those contentions. As in prior cases involving these parties, this overview and all additional background information are provided "so that the issues before us may be seen within their larger context." (North Coast Rivers Alliance v. Westlands Water Dist., supra, 227 Cal.App.4th at p. 840.)

Prior and Contemporaneous Contract Litigation

"With the Reclamation Act of 1902, Congress committed itself to the task of constructing and operating dams, reservoirs, and canals for the reclamation of the arid lands in 17 western states." (Peterson v. U.S. Dept. of Interior (9th Cir. 1990) 899 F.2d 799, 802.) Those projects were to be funded by the sale of federal land, but "almost immediately the funds proved inadequate, and Congress had to restructure the program's financing. In a series of amendments to ...