California Sportfishing Protection Alliance v. State Water Resources Control Board

We review in this appeal the trial court’s denial of appellants California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and DeltaKeeper Chapter of BayKeeper’s petition for writ of mandate, which challenged respondents State Water Resources Control Board (State Board) and state Regional Water Quality Control Board-Region 5’s (Regional Board) 2006 adoption and approval of the Deer Creek temperature amendment to the existing Water Quality Control Plan for the Sacramento and San Joaquin River Basins (the Basin Plan or plan). Appellants claim that the amendment violates the provisions of the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act (Wat. Code, § 13000 et seq.) (Porter-Cologne Act) and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) (Pub. Resources Code, § 21000 et seq.). In approving the temperature amendment to the Basin Plan, appellants argue respondents made findings on the beneficial uses of Deer Creek that are not supported by the evidence in the administrative record, and failed to comply with environmental review requirements that are the functional equivalent of CEQA. We conclude that the findings challenged by appellants are supported by the evidence, and respondents did not…