California environmental groups have sued state and federal water managers, claiming that their drought-management plan for projects below the crucial Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is pushing some species of fish to the brink of extinction.
The lawsuit marks the latest salvo in the battle over water in California as the state suffers through its fourth year of a devastating drought that has prompted strict conservation measures.
"We bring this lawsuit in an effort to prevent the impending extinction of fisheries that thrived for millennia," Bill Jennings of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance said in a statement announcing the legal action, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento on Wednesday.