The plan released June 4 by the National Marine Fisheries Service recommends a list of actions it estimates would cut current state and federal water exports south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta by 5-7 percent, or 330,000 acre-feet, a year.

This cut is in addition to a curtailment made last year to protect the Delta smelt. Agricultural water users south of the Delta currently receive about 10 percent of their average deliveries.

The suit argues fisheries service should have prepared an environmental impact statement before adopting the salmon recovery plan.

The U.S.District Court for the Eastern District of California recently granted a preliminary injunction in connection with a similar lawsuit that pointed to the failure of another federal agency, the Fish and Wildlife Service, to prepare an environmental assessment before imposing a set of restrictions on behalf of the Delta Smelt, according to Westlands.

Hearings on the merits of those challenges will be conducted later this year.

"The federal agencies pushing this plan have refused to estimate what the total loss of water will be.  And they won't say what it is going to cost taxpayers either," said Thomas Birmingham, Westlands general manager. "But the Department of Water Resources reports that the smelt and salmon restrictions will add $500 million a year to the cost for public agencies to continue delivering water. And that doesn't include the much larger capital costs for the changes that these federal agencies are demanding in existing dams and other water facilities."

Westlands filed its lawsuit jointly with the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority.

Among the plan’s recommendations are a new water temperature management plan for the upper Sacramento River and Shasta Reservoir and opening dams to allow for better salmon migration.

“What is at stake here is not just the survival of species but the health of entire ecosystems and the economies that depend on them,” said Rod Mcinnis, southwest regional director for the federal fisheries Service, in a prepared statement. “We are ready to work with our federal and state partners, farmers and residents to find solutions that benefit the economy, environment and Central Valley families.”