RECENT FEDERAL DECISIONS

April 2012

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Ninth Circuit Affirms Bureau of Reclamation’s Discretion in Accounting for Water Released for Fish, Wildlife and Restoration Activities
San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority v. U.S., ___F.3d___

A valid exercise of an agency’s discretion or a post-hoc rationalization conflicting with a legislative directive? This question, concerning the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation’s (Bureau) accounting of 9,000 acre-feet (AF) of water released from the Central Valley Project’s (CVP) New Melones Reservoir on the Stanislaus River and Nimbus Reservoir on the American River over a twoweek period in 2004, may have involved a relatively small amount of water, considering that an average of 7 million AF of water is released from CVP reservoirs in an average year.