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California Water Law & Policy Reporter

April 2020

Volume 30, Number 7 April 2020

FEATURE ARTICLE

Highly-Anticipated Groundwater Sustainability Plans Emerge for California’s ‘Critically Overdrafted’ Groundwater Basins by Derek Hoffman, Esq. and

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CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS

President Trump’s Visit to Bakersfield Results in Executive Memorandum for Adoption of CVP and State Water Project Biological Opinions—California Files Suit173

Salton Sea Species Management Program Report Outlines Progress and the Path Forward174

REGULATORY DEVELOPMENTS

California Department of Water Resources Refuses to Accept Coordination Agreement for GSPs in Madera Subbasin177

California Fish and Game Commission Adopts New Striped Bass Policy for the Delta179

LAWSUITS FILED OR PENDING

State Class Action Filed Challenging Public Agencies’ Retail Water Rates Under California’s Proposition 218181

RECENT FEDERAL DECISIONS

Circuit Court of Appeals:

D.C. Circuit Finds CERCLA Cost Recovery Claim Against the

Federal Government Fails Due to Previous Clean Water Act Consent

Decree183

Government of Guam v. United States of America, ___F.3d___, Case No. 19-5131 (D.C. Cir. Feb. 14, 2020).

District Court:

District Court Holds Clean Water Act Citizen Suit Alleging Stormwater Discharges Into San Francisco Bay Survives Motion to Dismiss185

Eden Environmental Citizen’s Group, LLC v. American Custom Marble, Inc., ___F.Supp.3d___, Case No. 19-CV-03424-EMC (N.D. Cal. Feb. 13, 2020).

Court of Federal Claims Rejects ‘Takings Claims’ Related to Hurricane Harvey Downstream Flooding Cases187

In re Downstream Addicks and Barker (Texas) Flood-Control Reservoir, ___F.Supp.3d___, Case No. 17-9002 (Fed. Cl. Feb. 18, 2020).

RECENT CALIFORNIA DECISIONS

District Court of Appeal:

Fourth District Court Finds Certified Local Coastal Plan, Not the Coastal Act Regulation, Governs City’s Coastal Development of Housing Facility189

Citizens for South Bay Coastal Access v. City of San Diego, ___Cal.App.5th___, Case No. D075387 (4th Dist. Feb. 18, 2020).

Fifth District Court Holds Kern County Oil and Gas Activity Ordinance Invalid191

King and Gardiner Farms, LLC, et al. v. County of Kern, et al., ___Cal.App.5th___, Case No. F077656 (5th Dist. Feb. 25, 2020).