Friant Water Authority and the City of Fresno filed suit in 2016 over a federal government decision in 2014/15 to withhold San Joaquin River water typically sent 150 miles south down the Friant Kern Canal. The federal Bureau of Reclamation severely limited their allocation that year due to extreme statewide drought conditions. … The appeal of the lower court rulings headed to the Supreme Court in 2025, some 10 years later — and as of Dec. 15, the high court “denied” the Friant claim without comment sustaining the government’s and lower court position that the Bureau of Reclamation who orchestrated the Central Valley Project, owns the water.