but....
was the issue brought to the courts the need for water to save fish? or was it WHO had the right to decide, regulate and distribute water for what purpose? two very different things! The nearest example we have in Oregon is the Klamath Basin water projects. USFWS has jurisdiction over the project because it was built by the federal government on the USFWS refuge. The turmoil over recent years has been whether or not to maintain flows in the lower klamath basin to support listed coho and sensitive chinook salmon, maintain water levels in the Klamath lakes for the endangered suckers, or provide water for irrigators (at levels unsustainable even in non-droght years because the rights were over sold--- but that's another story). The USFWS, in trying to meet obligations to the Endangered Species Act, have cut off many irrigators. The Administration, of course, has tried to step in, as well as members of congress, to change the USFWS' management of the water project. FWS still maintains control, with responses to the administration and congress, on how the water is managed. If ever sued, the feds would win... HOWEVER, in waters (like the John Day River, my home waters), the water is not federally regulated, it is ruled by state water law. The USFWS, USFS, BLM, and NOAA fisheries has NO say in whether or not there is suitable levels of water for anadormous fish in that system beyond a VERY base flow prescribed by water law. Water use is not regulated by federal say, but right of priority of with drawel. That won't change, dealing with state soverienty... This ruling will not likely change that situation, which is the majority condition through out the west. If we think the "oil wars" are nasty, we haven't seen anything yet!!!