Rural Counties Challenge CalFed Pact

California’s rural counties launched a major court fight Tuesday against the ambitious CalFed water accord, labeling it an effort to grab control over northern ground water and send it to powerful southern water districts.

The lawsuit is the most significant legal challenge to date against CalFed, a consortium of state and federal officials, water experts, consultants, irrigation district executives, environmentalists, biologists and others.

CalFed was created five years ago to seek a compromise between warring northern counties and southern water districts. Endorsed by Gov. Gray Davis and the Clinton administration, CalFed envisions about $8.6 billion worth of projects over the next decade, including delta protection, conservation programs, major expansion of the Shasta and Los Vaqueros reservoirs and a 15% increase in water pumped from the delta.

The suit was filed in Sacramento Superior Court by the Regional Council of Rural Counties, a coalition whose territories include watersheds that supply 80% of California’s developed water.

The lawsuit contends that CalFed ultimately would exert leverage over that water--either directly or by forcing counties to tap their ground water supplies--to meet what it says are unsustainable demands.

“CalFed perpetuates the same old mistakes, including the promise of water that simply isn’t there, even in robust rainfall years,” said regional council Chairman Tom Bamert, an Amador County supervisor. “California can’t continue to promise more water than is available for urban growth.”

Many of the regional council’s counties have approved local laws barring the export of ground water. The coalition is joined in its suit by the Central and South Delta Water agencies and several farm organizations.

CalFed spokeswoman Margaret Gidding hadn’t seen the suit, but said the complaints aren’t new.

“We’ve worked very hard to settle these concerns that we’ve heard throughout our program,” she said. “We have come up with what we think is a balanced program.”