The Santa Ana sucker won in federal court in–where else?–Santa Ana, sucker!
Technically, it was the Obama administration's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that Judge James V. Selna ruled for, rejecting the challenge inland water agencies mounted over expansion of the natural habitat for the endangered fish.
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See also:
Santa Ana Sucker Habitat Expansion Sucks, Water Agencies Tell Feds
Biologist Accuses Inland Water Districts of Spooking Populace Over Expanded Santa Ana Sucker Habitat
Santa Ana Sucker Legal Allies Finalized
The suit filed by the Riverside County Flood Control & Water
Conservation District, the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District and 10 other inland agencies lacked merit, ruled Selna, who also upheld the feds' plans to double the protection area for the Santa Ana sucker.
The water agencies, which argue the expansion will cut too deeply into regional water supplies, have not indicated whether they will appeal.
Ironically, a court ruling environmental groups won against Fish and Wildlife years ago forced the agency to adopt the expanded habitat at the center of the water agencies' suit. Lawyers from some of those same enviro groups filed briefs supporting the new boundaries.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.