United States Ninth Circuit

In a suit by water agencies contending that the Department of Interior abused its discretion in failing to apply certain releases of water against the amount of water especially designated for fish, wildlife, and habitat restoration under section 3406(b)(2) of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act, the district court's orders granting summary judgment in favor of the government is affirmed, where: 1) the water agencies had Article III standing to challenge the accounting methods employed by Interior for the water year in question, and also had statutory standing under the Administrative Procedure Act; but 2) Interior's accounting with respect to those releases was not arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/02/2012
• Published 03/02/2012

Judges

• Wu

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Thomas W. Birmingham, Cynthia L. Koehler