A Sacramento Superior Court judge today threw a wrench into plans to run high-speed rail through the Pacheco Pass as part of an ambitious plan to run a line from the Central Valley to the Bay Area. Environmental organizations, including Audubon California, had opposed the Pacheco Pass plan not only because it included significant risk to bird habitat, but because a better option existed in running the track through Altamont Pass. While the Altamont Pass option is not without its risks to the environment and neighboring communities, the Pacheco plan would take it through the largest contiguous wetland in California, and probably degrade the Upper Pajaro River Important Bird Area. With this decision today, the judge has scrapped the draft environmental impact report for the Pacheco Pass plan and ordered the high-speed railers to draft another -- opening the possibility that further review will prompt them to revisit their decision to reject the Altamont Pass plan.