(FresnoBee) - East San Joaquin Valley growers are suing state water authorities over drought decisions, claiming east-side communities and farms got no federal water after the state illegally denied deliveries to a separate group of landowners with senior water rights.

The case was filed Friday in Fresno County Superior Court against the State Water Resources Control Board, which issued emergency orders this year to divide California’s drought-strained water supply. The decisions prevented east-siders from getting even a small amount of water, farm leaders say.

The Friant Water Authority, representing 15,000 growers who buy water from Millerton Lake and irrigate 1 million acres from Chowchilla to Bakersfield, is asking the court to prevent the scenario from happening again.

“We can’t be in this position again next year,” said Friant general manager Ron Jacobsma. “Senior water rights have to be respected.”

Friant officials say the state board’s orders allowed the State Water Project and wildlife refuges to “leap-frog” over senior water rights holders on the Valley’s west side to get water. The west-siders are known as the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors, whose water rights date back to the 1800s.

As a result of the state’s decisions, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was forced to tap Millerton Lake to provide water for the historic-rights landowners, who farm 240,000 acres between Patterson and Mendota.

That left zero water for Friant farmers and more than a dozen cities that usually get water from Millerton. It was the first zero allocation since the federal Central Valley Project built Friant Dam more than six decades ago.

The state board has not yet been served with the lawsuit and cannot comment, a spokesman said.

Lawyer Jennifer Buckman, representing Friant, said the state’s orders had the effect of putting birds on the refuges ahead of people in small east-side communities such as Orange Cove, Terra Bella, Lindsay and Strathmore.