Protect Our Water v. County of Merced

In March 2001, appellants Protect Our Water, San Joaquin Raptor Rescue Center, and Merced Valley River Association (collectively POW), filed a petition for writ of mandamus setting aside a conditional use permit issued by respondent County of Merced (County). The permit allowed real party in interest Calaveras Materials, Inc. (CMI), to conduct surface mining operations (project) at a site known as Woolstenhulme Ranch. The petition also sought mandamus setting aside the certification of the environmental impact report (EIR) for the project and alleged that County had violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975 (SMARA) in approving the project. The trial court denied the petition in July 2002, and POW appealed to this court.

In July 2003, we reversed the trial court’s order denying the petition and directed the trial court to issue a peremptory writ of mandate to the County to set aside its approval of the project. (Protect Our Water v. County of Merced (2003) 110 Cal.App.4th 362 [ 1 Cal.Rptr.3d 726 ] (Opinion).) Our Opinion did not address the merits of the substantive issues raised by POW but instead…