Feds’ discrimination claim over California salinity standards deemed premature
A federal judge agreed with California that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation can’t claim yet that an amendment to salinity standards for parts of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta discriminates against the U.S. government. U.S. District Judge Jennifer Thurston in Sacramento on Wednesday dismissed the bureau’s claim under the federal constitutional intergovernmental immunity doctrine, which prohibits state or local laws that discriminate against the U.S. government, because until the amendment is implemented, it won’t be possible to evaluate whether the bureau is treated differently than similarly situated parties. … The problem, according to the federal bureau, was that the amended plan included revised, and less stringent Southern Delta salinity objectives, but it didn’t apply these less stringent objectives to Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the New Melones Dam and Reservoir on the Stanislaus River.
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