Main San Gabriel Basin Watermaster v. State Water Resources Control Board

Introduction

Appellant and real party in interest, Azusa Land Reclamation Company, Inc. (ALR), appeals from a final judgment denying its motion for a supplemental writ of mandate to direct the State Water Resources Control Board (State Board): (1) to set aside the State Board’s reversal of its own previously granted approval of ALR’s application for revised waste discharge requirements (WDR’s) (Wat. Code, § 13263) under the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act; and (2) to prepare an environmental impact report (EIR) to evaluate the potential impacts, cumulative impacts, mitigation measures and alternatives to ALR’s proposed municipal landfill project, prior to taking any action on the merits of ALR’s application. The underlying issue on appeal is whether the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires the State Board to prepare and consider an EIR before it may disapprove a project that might endanger state waters. We concur with the ruling of the lower corn! that CEQA imposes no such requirement, and affirm the judgment.

The History of the Action

For many years, ALR has operated a landfill on 80 acres of a 302-acre site in the central part of the San…