ELR Citation: ELR 20255
No(s). C-70-1274 (N.D. Cal. Aug 2, 1973)

The court refuses to dismiss plaintiff small farmers' claims for injunctive relief against further construction or operation of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation of the jointly funded San Luis Unit of the California State Water Project for failure to comply with the single owner acreage limitations of the federal reclamation laws. Assuming the correctness of plaintiffs' alleged facts for the purpose of ruling on the motions to dismiss, the court finds that plaintiffs have standing, that the suit is not barred by sovereign immunity, and that a class action is properly alleged. The court then decides that although an Interior Department Solicitor's Opinion found federal reclamation law inapplicable to the state service area (55 percent of the San Luis Unit, an area equivalent to the proportion of state funding), the question of whether the defendants have acted beyond the circumstances under which the Solicitor's Opinion confers a valid exemption merits a hearing. Plaintiffs' claim that NEPA compliance has not occurred also presents a factual question which cannot be dismissed. The court grants motions for intervention by three environmentalist parties, including the Sierra Club, after finding that they also have standing.

Counsel for Plaintiffs
James D. Lorenz, Jr.
170 Throckmorten Avenue
Mill Valley, CA 94941

Michel F. Willey
315 Montgomery Street
San Francisco, CA 94104

Counsel for Defendants
Evelle J. Younger Attorney General
6000 State Building
San Francisco, CA 94102

Francis Boone U.S. Attorney
Federal Building
450 Golden Gate Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94102

Counsel for Intervenor Sierra Club
John D. Hoffman
Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, Inc.
Suite 311, 311 California Street
San Francisco, CA 94104