Congress to approve Westlands Water District, Bureau of Reclamation deal

On Wednesday, a settlement between the Westlands Water District, the Justice Department and the Bureau of Reclamation was filed in federal court. The compromise settles a long ordeal for Westlands’ customers.

During the 1960s, the San Luis Act mandated the construction of agricultural drainage facilities to serve lands that covered the expansion of the Central Valley Project. Construction, however, was never completed. The San Luis Drain was closed in 1985.

For years, the Bureau of Reclamation failed to address the issue. In 2000, Westlands Water District filed a claim against the Secretary of the Interior and Bureau of Reclamation. The Circuit Court of Appeals in the Ninth Circuit agreed with the water agency. The Secretary was required to provide drainage services to the Westlands under the San Luis Act.

The agreement includes:

· Westlands Water District to assume full responsibility for drainage management within its boundaries. In addition, the water agency will have to retire 100,000 acres of land and repurpose the non-irrigated land for environmental friendly uses. The water district is no longer obligated to repay prior expenditures by the federal government for use on the Central Valley Project. The water district is capped at 75 percent of its contractual amount.

· The Department of Interior will oversee Westlands’ management of drainage. Taxpayers will no longer be on the hook for $3.5 billion dollars.

The settlement avoids a “court-imposed obligation (that) would jeopardize important investments in conservation, environmental restoration and water infrastructure,” said Estevan Lopez, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner.

Now that the agreement has been made, it must go to Congress for approval.

“From what I’ve seen, the settlement agreed to by Westlands and the Department of the Interior is very complex and my staff and I are reviewing all the details and ramifications,” Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) said in a statement.

Congress is expected to pass legislation on the issue by January 2017.