SAN DIEGO - A federal judge put on hold a Bush administration plan to divert water from farmers in the state?EUR??,,????'???s poorest county to urban areas of Southern California. This according to the US Water News Online. The preliminary injunction restores Imperial County?EUR??,,????'???s full allotment of Colorado River water, roughly 70 percent of the amount the state can draw from the river this year. Other areas will have to make do with less. Interior Secretary Gale Norton cut the desert farm region?EUR??,,????'???s water supply by 10 percent after California failed to reach a Dec. 31 deadline to sign a deal aimed at weaning the state from its historic overuse of the Colorado, a resource it shares with six other states. She also dictated who in Southern California would get how much of the state?EUR??,,????'???s remaining Colorado River supply. But U.S. District Judge Thomas Whelan ruled that Norton failed to follow procedure and breached water contracts dating to the Great Depression when she redistributed Imperial?EUR??,,????'???s supply. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California now stands to lose at least 66,000 acre feet of river water this year, enough for more than 132,000 homes, spokesman Adan Ortega said. He added that the agency has sufficient supplies to make up the difference. Coachella Valley, a desert region near Palm Springs, stands to lose 140,000 acre feet of water, enough for 280,000 households. An agency spokesman said it was too soon to gauge the impact. For years, California has been allowed to use more than its share of Colorado River water because six other Western states that share the Colorado didn?EUR??,,????'???t use their full allotments. But rapid growth in the other states and a severe drought prompted the Interior Department to crack down. Government attorneys argued during the hearing that Norton acted within her power as the congressionally designated master of the lower Colorado River. They also argued that inefficient Imperial farmers are wasting water. The judge did not address that issue.