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california Water Today 115 of political clout. Critics of the Department of Water Resources express concern that the agency’s broader public mission of statewide water resource planning conflicts with (and is compromised by) its operation of the State Water Project (Little Hoover Commission 2010). In Chapter 8, we suggest some institutional reforms to improve the performance of these state agencies. Federal agencies also face resource constraints, exacerbating the effects of diminished federal involvement in California water in recent decades (Chapter 1). In particular, the ability of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to play a major role in California has been severely taxed by American involvement in wars and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the need to focus domestic efforts on the Gulf of Mexico in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the British Petroleum oil spill. The courts California’s judicial system also plays an important role in water governance, with the courts serving as arbiters of disputes over particular water manage- ment and use issues that often affect or reflect broader policies. State courts, rather than the legislature, established the initial contours of California’s hybrid system of water rights, and courts continue to define and redefine those con- tours (such as the meaning of “reasonable use”) (Gray 2004). In the absence of state groundwater permitting, courts have been the locus of adjudication proceedings for groundwater basins. Federal and state courts also have had a central role in environmental policy. In recent years, court actions have been particularly important in protecting environmental flows and other environ- mental amenities of water, both through the judicially enforced public trust doctrine (National Audubon Society v. Superior Court 1983) and through their interpretation and enforcement of the federal and state Endangered Species Acts (Moore, Mulville, and Weinberg 1996; Doremus and Tarlock 2003). For instance, current controversies over water supply and endangered species man- agement in the Delta are largely being played out in a federal court in Fresno (Chapter 1). The threat of a court decision can also lead parties to come to a settlement—the case with the recent agreement to restore flows to the San Joaquin River to bring back salmon and other fish species (Box 9.1). A Diverse Mix of Other Actors Many other groups, both formal and informal, are involved in making and implementing water policies and managing water resources.