A federal judge dismissed an environmental lawsuit challenging California’s now-dismantled emergency salinity barrier across a channel of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in response to the drought.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence O’Neill ruled on March 31 that the complaint from the Center for Environmental Science, Accuracy and Reliability (CESAR) is moot.
The 750-foot-wide rock barrier was built in May 2015 as a temporary fix to prevent additional saltwater from fouling freshwater supplies to approximately 25 million people, according to the defendant California Department of Water Resources.