SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Two environmental groups have sued the National Marine Fisheries Service over two water systems operated by Stanford University that they claim are harming threatened fish.
Our Children’s Earth and Ecological Rights Foundation filed the lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, claiming the service is not properly protecting steelhead trout in San Francisquito creek.
With the state in an historic drought, plaintiffs attorney Christopher Sproul said the government should not allow Stanford to take water out of the creek, which the school uses to irrigate a golf course and campus landscaping.
Sproul says the school’s water diversions have reduced stream flows, harming fish by blocking upstream migration and warming the creek’s waters.
Jim Milbury, a NMFS spokesman, said the service does not comment on pending litigation.
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