Judge OKs Settlement for Salt-Tainted Farmland

A federal judge has approved a $107-million settlement with San Joaquin Valley farmers whose salt-poisoned land was damaged by decades of intensive irrigation and poor drainage.

U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger granted motions late Thursday in favor of about 100 farming families in the nation’s largest agricultural irrigation district.

Environmental groups sued in December to block the settlement, saying that too much of the money would be taken from federal environmental projects. Wanger dismissed those claims and allowed the settlement to proceed.

That decision releases the government’s share of a $139-million settlement reached in December among the Westlands Water District, federal officials and farmers. As part of the deal, Westlands is to pay $32 million and retire land from the families who brought the suit, including former California Secretary of State Bill Jones.

More than half the total money is earmarked to go to four families, including Jones’.

Water district spokesman Tupper Hull said Friday, “It makes water available for remaining farms and it benefits the environment because ultimately it reduces the demand for water from the delta.

“It’s also in the interest of the taxpayers because it relieves the government of a very, very costly obligation to provide drainage to farmers in the Central Valley who receive water from the Central Valley Project.”

The landowners farming 33,000 acres in the Westlands District, located in Kings and Fresno counties, sued the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for allegedly failing to provide a promised drainage system. The families said the salts in irrigation water accumulated to damage the farmland.

Pipes in the partly built San Luis Drain were plugged in 1985 after dead and deformed birds were found where runoff concentrated at Kesterson Reservoir.

The Natural Resources Defense Council and water associations in Contra Costa County filed suit over language in the settlement that stated money could come from funds reserved to save salmon and promote other wildlife conservation measures.

But Wanger said the Central Valley Project Improvement funds were not proposed for use in the initial payment to landowners and said it was premature to question the lawfulness of the funding source.

“Until the United States announces it intends to, or actually does, use CVPIA restoration funds to pay any portion of the settlement, the legality of such an action is not ripe for decision,” Wanger wrote.

Hal Candee, a Natural Resources Defense Council lawyer, said Wanger made it clear he was not approving the particular source of federal funds in his decision.

“The focus now returns to Congress to decide whether this questionable settlement should be funded at all, and so far the entire California delegation is on record opposing the use of any Interior Department funds or restoration funds to pay for it,” Candee said in a statement.

At a hearing last month, government lawyers said there was no evidence restoration funds will be used. But if Congress wishes to appropriate the money, it is “within its prerogative,” said Maria Iizuka, a Justice Department attorney.

The Bush administration has proposed using $1.7 million from the restoration fund as part of a $34-million payment, but Congress hasn’t approved that plan.

California’s entire congressional delegation -- 55 lawmakers from both parties -- have opposed diverting funds from other water projects to pay the settlement and have urged the Department of Justice to use a legal settlement account.

The state delegation has also called for oversight hearings and initiated an investigation, fearing it could set a detrimental precedent.

“Funding this controversial settlement -- negotiated with no input or review by the Congress, which is now expected to fund it -- could put us on the path of funding hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements that we have no opportunity to design or ensure that sound public policy is followed and that taxpayers are fully protected,” Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) said in a statement.