CSPA has sued the State Water Resources Control Board (State Board) and the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board) over the issuance of a NPDES permit for the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District’s wastewater treatment plant. The plant is the largest wastewater facility in the Central Valley, with a permitted discharge limit of 181 million gallons a day. The Sacramento River in the vicinity of the discharge point is identified as an impaired waterbody and a migration corridor for numerous species listed under state and federal endangered species acts.
CSPA submitted extensive comments and testified at the December 2010 hearing where the Regional Board approved the permit. We filed a timely petition for review with the State Board and provided written and oral testimony at a July workshop and October hearing, where the State Board issued an order addressing only a few topics. On 3 January 2013, CSPA filed a Petition for Writ of Mandate in Sacramento Superior Court.
CSPA alleges that the water boards prejudicially abused their discretion by approving a permit that violates numerous explicit provisions of state and federal law governing the issuance of wastewater permits. The Petition contains nineteen separate causes of action.
The Petition asks the court to issue a Writ of Mandate against the water boards setting aside the Sacramento Regional Permit and ordering the boards to re-issue the permit in conformance with all requirements of the Clean Water Act, State Anti-degradation Policy, Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, the Water Code, The Basin Plan and the State Implementation Plan for Toxics Control.
The Law Offices of Andrew Packard and Lozeau/Drury LLP are representing CSPA in this matter.