Natural Res. Def. Council, et al. v. County of Los Angeles, et al., No. 10-56017 (9th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CasePlaintiffs appealed the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of two municipal entities that plaintiffs alleged were discharging polluted stormwater in violation of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (the Clean Water Act or Act), 33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq. Although all parties agreed that numerous water-quality standards have been exceeded in the Watershed Rivers, defendants contended that there was no evidence establishing their responsibility for, or discharge of, stormwater carrying pollutants to the rivers. The court concluded that the district court erred with respect to the evidence of discharges by the Los Angeles County Flood Control District into two of the Watershed Rivers where plaintiffs provided evidence that the monitoring stations for the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers were located in a section of the municipal separate storm water sewer systems (ms4) owned and operated by the District and, after stormwater known to contain standards-exceeding pollutants passed through these monitoring stations, this polluted stormwater was discharged into the two rivers. Accordingly, plaintiffs were entitled to summary judgment on the District's liability for discharges into the two rivers and the district court's judgment was reversed. The court held, however, that plaintiffs failed to meet their evidentiary burden with respect to discharges by the District into the Santa Clara River and Malibu Creek where plaintiffs did not provide evidence sufficient for the district court to determine if stormwater discharged from an ms4 controlled by the District caused or contributed to pollution exceedances located in these two rivers. Similarly, plaintiffs did not delineate how stormwater from ms4s controlled by Los Angeles County caused or contributed to exceedances in any of the Watershed Rivers. Accordingly, the court affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of defendants on these claims.
This opinion or order relates to an opinion or order originally issued on March 10, 2011.
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