For more than a decade, Kern County farmers and water officials have been complaining bitterly about irrigation water they lost when federal agencies began diverting it to protect endangered fish. Now, a court has ruled that federal agencies must pay for water they took for environmental protection in the early 1990s, an estimated $26 million. In a case that could leave the government liable in other programs around the country, a federal claims court judge in Washington, D.C., has given agricultural and urban water agencies a major victory.The ruling is a blow to environmentalists and federal environmental officials who argued...