CSPA Advisory

CSPA Advisory July 7, 2010 

CSPA Sues City of Redding's Abernathy Transfer Station

By Bill Jennings, CSPA Executive Director
July 7, 2010 -- CSPA filed a lawsuit against the City of Redding for massive violations of the federal Clean Water Act and the state's General Industrial Stormwater Permit at the Abernathy Transfer Station and Compost Facility. The facility is a 25-acre recycling, composting, waste transfer and trucking facility that discharges pollutants to Clover Creek, which ultimately flows into the Sacramento River and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The lawsuit alleges that waste discharges from the Abernathy facility egregiously exceed allowable standards and benchmarks for numerous pollutants. It further alleges the facility has failed to: 1) develop and implement standard Best Available and Best Conventional Treatment Technologies, 2) develop and implement an adequate Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan, 3) develop and implement an adequate Monitoring and Reporting Program and 4) truthfully certify its annual reports.

The action asks the court to: 1) declare the City of Redding to be in violation of the law, 2) enjoin the City from discharging pollutants to surface waters and from further violating the substantive and procedural requirements of the permit, 3) order the City to take appropriate actions to restore the quality of waters impaired by their its activities, pay civil penalties for each day of violation and reimburse CSPA the costs of bringing the complaint.

The Law Offices of Andrew Packard and Jackson & Tuerck are CSPA's attorneys in this matter.

Read the lawsuit.