
The California Supreme Court on July 21 overturned a Court of Appeal decision that favored Delta landowners in their legal battle against the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), eliminating one of the many hurdles faced by the Brown administration in its campaign to build the Delta Tunnels.
The court ruled that state officials are not required to pay landowners to access their land to conduct surveys needed for planning the construction of Governor Jerry Brown’s Delta Tunnels, renamed the California WaterFix in 2015. Tunnels opponents consider the WaterFix to be the most environmentally destructive public works project in California history.
The court said they reject the landowner’s claim that the Department of Water Resources overreached its authority in entering private land to drill test borings for the twin tunnels.
“We conclude that the current pre-condemnation entry and testing statutes are properly interpreted to encompass the type and degree of pre-condemnation environmental and geological testing at issue here,” the court ruled. “Accordingly, we reject the landowners' claim that the Department overreached in invoking the pre-condemnation entry and testing statutes in order to obtain authority to conduct the pre-condemnation activities proposed in this case.”
Tom Keeling of the Freeman Firm in Stockton, representing dozens of landowners, said the court did hand Delta landowners a “limited victory” in the case by “reforming” the statute at issue to allow the landowners the right of a jury trial.
DWR had requested court orders that would allow DWR agents to enter Delta properties to conduct investigations in support of the Governor’s controversial twin tunnels project. “The proposed investigations included geological, biological and cultural surveys DWR said were essential for the twin tunnel project to continue,” according to a statement from Keeling’s office.
Keeling focused on the fact that DWR did not offer to pay for its proposed entries. DWR argued that the entries should be granted without compensation under a “pre-condemnation entry” statute. That statute requires a deposit of probable compensation for actual damage to property, but no right to a jury within the proceeding, said Keeling.