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CEQA challenges, ruling that, although the appointed contractor should not have been the

lead agency for the preparation of the EIR, the EIR was nonetheless adequate, which

meant that the CEQA violation was not prejudicial.

In 2000, the Third District Court of Appeal agreed with the trial court that DWR,
not the appointed contractor, should have acted as the lead agency for the preparation of

the EIR for the Monterey Agreement, but disagreed with the trial court that the EIR itself

was adequate. The Third District reversed the judgment, concluding that the omissions in

the EIR mandated preparation of a new EIR for the Monterey Agreement, under DWR’s

direction. (PCL, supra, 83 Cal.App.4th at p. 898.)
In June 2003, the Sacramento County Superior Court entered an order approving a

settlement agreement in the CEQA case involving the Monterey Agreement. The order

provided that the trial court would issue a writ of mandate compelling DWR to prepare a

new EIR for the Monterey Agreement, and that the court would retain jurisdiction over

the cause until DWR filed a return to the writ of mandate showing that it had complied
with CEQA, and the court issued an order discharging the writ of mandate. (Planning &

Conservation League v. Department of Water Resources (Super. Ct. Sacramento County,

2003, No. 95CS03216.)

The record before us today shows that the parties who are involved in the current

appeal are of the understanding that, notwithstanding the passage of more than five years,
DWR still has not yet completed its EIR for the Monterey Agreement.

With this summary of the CEQA litigation involving the Monterey Agreement, we

turn to still more events.

B. The First CEQA Case Involving the Transfer of 41,000 AFY of SWP

Water from KCWA to CLWA
In 1999, while the CEQA case involving the Monterey Agreement as a whole was

pending in the Third District, the Castaic Lake Water Agency (CLWA) –– in accord with

the Monterey Agreement –– agreed to purchase an entitlement to 41,000 AFY of SWP

water from the Kern County Water Agency (KCWA) for approximately $47 million. The

transfer of 41,000 AFY of water was memorialized in an amendment to the water supply

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