Communities for a Better Environment v. State Water Resources Control Board

Real party in interest Tesoro Refining and Marketing Company (Tesoro) operates the Golden Eagle Refinery (the Refinery) near Avon, California, on the shores of Suisun Bay. The Refinery operates under a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit issued by the Regional Water Quality Control Board, San Francisco Bay Region (Regional Board). The permit regulates the Refinery’s discharges of dioxins and other pollutants into Suisun Bay. In June 2000 the Regional Board amended the permit. After an administrative appeal, the State Water Resources Control Board (State Board) upheld the amended permit.

Appellants, Communities for a Better Environment and San Francisco BayKeeper, challenged the amended 2000 permit by a petition for writ of mandate in the superior court. Appellants raised three issues: (1) that the amended 2000 permit failed to comply with applicable federal pollution control laws because it failed to set a numeric “water quality based effluent limit” (WQBEL) for dioxin discharges; (2) that the permit violated the antibacksliding provisions of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act ( 33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq.), commonly known as the Clean Water…