Wanger Denies Feds’ X2 Stay Request

U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger in a hearing today denied a request by the federal government and Natural Resources Defense Council to stay his injunction of the controversial X2 regulatory measure pending appeal.

He did, however, suspend the injunction until mid-October due to favorable weather conditions.

On Aug. 31, Wanger blocked federal agencies from implementing the measure known as X2, which would have removed as much as 300,000 acre-feet of water from the system to protect Delta smelt.

Proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the measure would have required larger than usual reservoir releases and some export reductions in September and October to increase fresh water flows through the Delta.

Wanger found that FWS’s biological opinion failed to explain why it is essential to maintain X2 at the location proposed. He also criticized the Service for its “one-sided, single purpose” approach that inflicts “drastic consequences on California water users.”

Read more on today’s hearing in the Pacific Legal Foundation’s Liberty Blog and Kronick Moskovitz Tiedemann & Girard Natural Resources Blog.