The settlement requires the authority to mitigate the construction impacts on the area's farms and provides protections for the Central Valley agricultural community.

"This is a positive step that removes the last legal challenge to moving ahead and signals a new collaborative approach to working with the agricultural community to build this project," says Morales.

But Kopp, a former state senator and superior court judge, says there are other lawsuits pending, including one filed by Kings County and two local ranchers. He is an expert witness for the plaintiff.

The suit argues that the high-speed-rail line through the San Joaquin Valley violates sections of Prop 1A by misusing funds that were meant only for an electric rail system. The authority's 2012 "blended plan" calls for shared tracks with non-electric trains and using some of Prop 1A's $10-billion allotment for accompanying improvements.

"High-speed rail only operates on dedicated tracks. It cannot share tracks," says Kopp, who signed an 11-page declaration for Kings County. "This project has been turned into a non-high-speed- rail system by virtue of numerous violations of the provisions of the bond measure."

Kopp says the authority's post-Prop 1A plan "seizes approximately $2 billion" for local Caltrain commuter rail. "And having done this in northern California, politically, you have to do it in Southern California, so Metrolink will get a comparable amount of money," he says.

Morales says the blended plan approved by the Legislature is a "common-sense way of how we can deliver this program in a way that takes advantage of existing systems, provides near-term benefits and achieves the long-term goal."