A California county judge on May 6 ruled that two landowners cannot block access to their property to prevent engineers from studying possible routes for a 600-ft-wide and possibly 50-mile-long canal to help move water from northern sources to Southern California users. About half the owners of 125 parcels have denied access. The ruling in Contra Costa County that said two of them cannot stop the state from collecting biological and geological data on their farms—a ruling sought by state Attorney General Jerry Brown—is the first in the matter. Access requests for another 388 parcels are planned.