Casitas Municipal Water District v. United States

OPINION

WIESE, Judge.

This case is before the court following a trial held to determine the compensation, if any, owed to plaintiff under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution for the taking of its property. In an earlier round of litigation in this case, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that operating restrictions on plaintiffs water project imposed by the National Marine Fisheries Service (“NMFS”) pursuant to the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”), 16 U.S.C. §§ 1531M4 (2006), should be analyzed as a physical taking where plaintiff was required to reroute a…