On June 12, the Attorney General of California filed suit in federal district court seeking a judgment that the state may impose reasonable conditions on the operation of a federal water project in order to protect environmental interests. The action, California v. Morton,¹ grows out of a conflict between the State Water Resources Control Board and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation regarding the operation of the federal Central Valley Project (CVP). State review of the program has been more responsive to environmental concerns and has now forced a confrontation on the limits of a state's authority to protect these interests against federal encroachment. The litigation demonstrates an increased momentum on the state level in efforts to protect the environment, encouraged by recent federal legislation and implemented by state environmental quality statutes.

California has a long history of attempts to better manage its water resources. The state experiences both spring floods and summer droughts, with much of its land unusable and growth in many areas limited without water transported from other parts of the state. In 1919, the state attempted to solve this situation with the "Marshall Plan," a statewide plan for water management proposed by Colonel Robert Marshall of the U.S. Geological Survey. When state resources to cope with the problem were outstripped, Congress passed legislation that created the Central Valley Project, now the largest reclamation project in the United States. Total reservoir capacity presently exceeds 8.5 million acre-feet of water.