The State Water Resource Control Board’s Office of Enforcement has released a report titled Citizen Suit Enforcement Under the Federal Clean Water Act. The report analyzes citizen suits based upon Notices of Intent to Sue issued between March 2009 and June 2010. During that period, 15 organizations instituted 70 citizen enforcement actions. CSPA was responsible for 34 or 48.6% of all of the citizen enforcement actions in California. The report found that citizen enforcement fulfills the role contemplated by the Clean Water Act, does not interfere with enforcement actions sought be the Water Boards and addresses violations that the Water Boards do not have the resources to pursue with their own limited staff. State Board Report Enforcement Actions
On 5 July 2011, CSPA filed a lawsuit against All Star Auto Wrecking, Inc., for violations of the federal Clean Water Act, the state’s General Industrial Stormwater Permit and Proposition 65; i.e., Section 35349.5 et seq. of the California Health and Safety Code. The site is an auto dismantling and recycling facility in Corning that discharges pollutants to stormwater drains that discharge to Rice Creek, which flows into Sour Grass Creek which drains to Burch Creek and ultimately to the Sacramento River and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Continue reading →
On 8 July 2011, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance appealed the wastewater discharge permit issued by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board for the City of Live Oak’s wastewater treatment plant to the State Water Resources Control Board. The permit was adopted on 10 June 2011. The facility discharges up to 1.4 million gallons/day of treated wastewater that ultimately flows to the Feather River, Sacramento River and Delta. The 42-page Petition for Review details the Regional Board’s failure to comply with numerous fundamental requirements for issuing wastewater permits. Petition for Review
On 5 July 2011, CSPA, Restore the Delta, City of Stockton, County of San Joaquin, area legislators and numerous Delta organizations jointly submitted a letter to the House Subcommittee on Water and Power strongly opposing H.R. 1837. The proposed legislation is designed to benefit a few west-side agri-businesses by subjugating California water law to federal political interference, unraveling the historic San Joaquin River Agreement, overturning years of water planning costing millions of dollars and dismembering protection for endangered and depleted fisheries. Coalition Letter
On 5 July 2011, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) and a coalition of environmental groups jointly submitted a detailed comment letter opposing a proposed amendment to the State Water Resource Control Board’s policy on the use of coastal and estuarine waters for power plant cooling. Countless millions of fish have been killed when sucked into intake structures diverting water to cool power plants. CSPA was involved as the extensively developed and thoroughly debated policy was finally adopted on 4 May 2010. The policy requires that cooling water intake structures reflect the best technology available for minimizing adverse environmental impact. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power requested a major amendment to the policy granting them a major unwarranted time extension for their power plants to comply with deadlines. The State Board will consider the proposed amendment on 19 July 2011. Comment Letter
On 29 June 2011, CSPA sent a Notice of Intent to Sue A&S Metals in Modesto California, for violations of the federal Clean Water Act. The notice letter alleges that the Modesto metal recycling facility is illegally discharging polluted stormwater in violation of the substantive and procedural requirements of the General Industrial Stormwater Permit into the Modesto Storm Drain System which flows into the Tuolumne River and thence the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Continue reading →
The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), California Water Impact Network (C-WIN) and AquAlliance issued a 24 June 2011 press release publicly questioning the basis of Pacific Legal Foundation’s lawsuit challenging the legal basis of Endangered Species Act protections for the Delta Smelt. The lawsuit is one of many recent lawsuits based on Westland Water District’s claims of huge reductions in irrigated acreage on the West side of the San Joaquin Valley as a result of Endangered Species Act restrictions on Delta pumping. Continue reading →
On 23 June 2011, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) joined a coalition of fishermen and environmentalists, including the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Battle Creek Alliance, Center for Sierra Nevada Conservation and Sierra Club in calling on Governor Brown to impose a moratorium on clear cutting along Battle Creek until a watershed-wide assessment of cumulative impacts from logging is conducted. Accelerated clear-cutting by Sierra Pacific Industries is jeopardizing an ongoing $128 million restoration project on Battle Creek. Continue reading →
On 23 June 2011, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance submitted a 51-page comment letter to the Central Valley Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board regarding the proposed wastewater discharge permit for the Bear Valley Water District’s wastewater treatment plant. The facility discharges a half-million gallons a day of treated wastewater to Blood Creek, a tributary of the N. Fork of the Stanislaus River. CSPA’s letter identifies myriad technical and legal deficiencies and points out that the proposed permit is severely non-protective of the fisheries and other beneficial uses of downstream waters.
On 21 June 2011, CSPA settled a Clean Water Act lawsuit against the Allied Waste Services regarding serious violations of the California General Industrial Stormwater Permit. Allied Waste Services Concrete operates a 4-acre waste hauling and collection facility in Rancho Cordova, California. Stormwater runoff discharges to the Folsom South Canal that empties into the American River and thence the Sacramento River and Delta. Continue reading →
On 9 June 2011, CSPA settled a Clean Water Act lawsuit against the Syar Concrete LLC regarding serious violations of the California General Industrial Stormwater Permit. Syar Concrete operates a 6-acre ready-mix concrete facility in Woodland, California. Stormwater runoff discharges to the Tule Canal that empties into the Sacramento River and thence the Delta. Continue reading →
On 6 June 2011, CSPA and C-WIN submitted final comments on the proposed extension of the existing Irrigated Lands Program waiver to the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board). The Regional Board will consider a two-year extension of the existing waiver at its 9 June 2011 hearing. Continue reading →
CSPA has joined a broad coalition of fishing, tribal and environmental organizations in urging Governor Brown, Senate Pro Tem Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Perez to eliminate funding for the California Department of Fish and Game’s suction dredge mining regulatory program and to maintain the current moratorium on the highly destructive and polluting mining practice for the next five years. The program raises only $375,000 a year in permit fees but costs more than $1.8 million to administer. Suction dredging mobilizes toxic mercury, pollutes drinking water supplies and has caused great harm to the state’s fisheries. Coalition Letter
CSPA presented a series of oral comments to the State Water Resources Control Board on Monday, June 6 concerning the Board’s environmental review of San Joaquin flow and salinity. A proceeding on San Joaquin flow and salinity is part of the Board’s update of its Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan. CSPA, the California Water Impact Network, and AquAlliance presented joint written scoping comments on May 25. Continue reading →
The Foothill Conservancy, CSPA and Friends of the River have won a lawsuit that will compel the East Bay Municipal Utilities District to revise its Program Environmental Impact Report (“PEIR”) for its long term water supply. The PEIR for the “Water Supply Management Plan 2040” was found deficient in an April 13, 2011 ruling by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy M. Frawley. Continue reading →
CSPA and the Foothill Conservancy have signed an agreement with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. that requires PG&E to model water temperatures in the Mokelumne River. PG&E must perform the modeling before it seeks a license to construct a pumped storage hydroelectric project in the watershed. The agreement arose after CSPA and Foothill Conservancy became parties to a proceeding at the Public Utilities Commission. In the proceeding, PG&E seeks authorization to charge $38,000,000 to ratepayers in order to pay for feasibility studies and a licensing proceeding before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Continue reading →
CSPA and a coalition of fishing and environmental organizations have submitted a 20 May 2011 letter to the House Natural Resources Committee and Water and Power Subcommittee in opposition to H.R. 1837. Continue reading →
On 19 May 2011, CSPA settled a Clean Water Act lawsuit against Gustafson Auto Wrecking and Towing, Inc. regarding serious violations of the California General Industrial Stormwater Permit. The facility is a 9-acre vehicle dismantling and automotive parts recycling operation in Redding California that discharges polluted stormwater to Stillwater Creek, which drains to the Sacramento River and Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta. Continue reading →
On 19 May 2011, CSPA settled a Clean Water Act lawsuit against Anderson Landfill, Inc./USA Waste of California, Inc. regarding serious violations of the California General Industrial Stormwater Permit and California’s Health and Safety Code (Prop. 65). Anderson Landfill/USA Waste operates a 246-acre landfill in Anderson, California that discharges polluted stormwater through multiple discharge points into Anderson and Cottonwood Creeks, which flow to the Sacramento River. Continue reading →
CSPA has submitted general and expert testimony and exhibits for a water rights hearing to be held on June 16 and 17 regarding the diversions by El Sur Ranch of water from the Big Sur River.
In 1994, CSPA, the Department of Fish and Game, and the Division of State Parks protested a water rights application to divert water from the Big Sur River. The application was made by El Sur Ranch to irrigate about 250 acres of pasture near the river’s mouth. Following a complaint from State Parks, El Sur Ranch was found to be diverting water without legal right, and applied to the State Water Resources Control Board for a water right for its diversions. Since 1994, these diversions have continued while the application was pending. Continue reading →
