Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District et al. v. Department of Water Resources

Summary

The California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, reversed orders granting preliminary injunctions against the California Department of Water Resources’ preconstruction geotechnical work for the Delta Conveyance Project. The court held that the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Reform Act does not require DWR to submit a certification of consistency with the Delta Plan before undertaking that geotechnical work, and rejected the argument that CEQA’s whole-of-an-action and anti-piecemealing principles were incorporated into the Act’s certification requirement. The matter was remanded for the trial court to vacate the injunction orders and reconsider the motions in light of that conclusion.

Holdings

1. The Delta Reform Act does not require DWR to submit a certification of consistency before engaging in preconstruction geotechnical work for the Delta tunnel project.
2. The Delta Reform Act's certification-of-consistency requirement does not incorporate CEQA's whole-of-an-action requirement or prohibition against piecemealing.
3. The preliminary injunction orders were improper because plaintiffs failed to establish a reasonable probability of prevailing on the merits under the correct statutory interpretation.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the Delta Reform Act requires DWR to submit a certification of consistency with the Delta Plan before conducting preconstruction geotechnical work for an otherwise covered tunnel project.
2. Whether CEQA's whole-of-an-action requirement and prohibition against piecemealing are incorporated into the Delta Reform Act's definition of a covered action and certification-of-consistency requirement.
3. Whether the superior court properly granted preliminary injunctions based on plaintiffs' asserted probability of success on their Delta Reform Act claim.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded