A Superior Court in Sacramento issued a decision Wednesday that groundwater is a resource that should be protected as a public trust. Judge Allen Sumner ruled that state agencies must consider the environmental impact of groundwater pumping in the aquifer surrounding the Scott River in northern California. The case was filed against the State Water Resources Control Board and Siskiyou County, by the Environmental Law Foundation on behalf of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and the Institute of Fisheries Resources. The decision, if upheld, could be an important step toward the State regulating groundwater that is connected to surface waterways. Vic Bedoian reports from Fresno.