NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL v. SALAZAR

No. 09-17661.

686 F.3d 1092 (2012)

NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL; California Trout; Baykeeper & It's Deltakeeper Chapter; Friends of the River; The Bay Institute, all non-profit organizations, Plaintiffs-Appellants, and Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Plaintiff in Related Case, Plaintiff, v. Kenneth Lee SALAZAR, in his official capacity as Secretary of the Interior; Sam D. Hamilton, in his official capacity as Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Michael J. Connor, in his official capacity as Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; Anderson-Cottonwood Irrigation District; Pacific Realty Associates, LP; Reclamation District 1004; Beverly F. Andreotti; Banta-Carbona Irrigation District; Patterson Irrigation District; West Side Irrigation District; Byron Bethany Irrigation District; Carter Mutual Water Company; Howald Farms, Inc.; Maxwell Irrigation District; Meridian Farms Water Company; Oji Brothers Farm, Inc.; Henry D. Richter; Sutter Mutual Water Co.; Tisdale Irrigation and Drainage Company; Windswept Land and Livestock Company; City of Redding; Coelho Family Trust; Eagle Field Water District; Mercy Springs Water District; Oro Loma Water District; Conaway Conservancy Group; Del Puerto Water District; West Stanislaus Irrigation District; Fresno Slough Water District; James Irrigation District; Tranquility Irrigation District; Christo D. Bardis; Abdul Rauf; Tahmina Rauf; Sacramento River Ranch, LLC; Fred Tenhunfeld; Family Farm Alliance, Defendants-Appellees, San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority; Westlands Water District; California Farm Bureau Federation; State Water Contractors; California Department of Water Resources; Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District; Natomas Central Mutual Water Company; Pelger Mutual Water Company; Pleasant Grove-Verona Mutual Water Company; Reclamation District 108; River Garden Farms; Princeton-Codora-Glenn Irrigation District; Provident Irrigation District; Kern County Water Agency, Defendant-Intervenors-Appellees.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Filed July 17, 2012.


Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

Katherine Poole , Senior Attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council, San Francisco, CA; Hamilton Candee and Barbara J. Chisholm , Altshuler Berzon LLP, for the plaintiffs-appellants.

Andrew C. Mergen and Robert H. Oakley , Attorneys, Environment & Natural Resources Division, Department of Justice, WA, D.C., for the defendants-appellees.

Daniel J. O'Hanlon , Hanspeter Walter , Rebecca R. Akroyd , Kronick Moskovitz Tiedemann & Girard, PC, Sacramento, CA; Stuart L. Somach and Andrew M. Hitchings , Somach Simmons & Dunn, Sacramento, CA; Steven P. Saxton , Kevin M. O'Brien , Maya R. Ferry Stafford, Downey Brand LLP, Sacramento, CA, for the defendant-intervenors-appellees.

Opinion by Judge HUG; Dissent by Judge PAEZ.


OPINION

HUG, Circuit Judge:

In this appeal, we address whether the renewal of forty-one water supply contracts by the United States Bureau of Reclamation violates § 7(a)(2) of the Endangered Species Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1536(a)(2) and illegally threatens the existence of the delta smelt. We conclude that it does not, and we affirm the judgment of the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

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