Barthelemy

I.

Introduction

The Chino area is justly famous for its dairies. It is also famous, justly or not, for the pervasive odor of the manure generated by these dairies. From this case, we have learned that this manure is not merely an annoyance to olfactory sensibilities, but a serious threat to the quality of the water in the Chino Groundwater Basin.

Respondent Chino Basin Municipal Water District (the District) believes it has come up with a way to keep manure from polluting the local groundwater. It proposes mixing manure with sludge from its own wastewater treatment plants, “co-composting” them, and trucking the resulting compost to agricultural areas outside the Chino Basin. The District has acquired a site for these operations in the Chino Dairy Preserve. Also, pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) (Pub. Resources Code, § 21000 et seq.), it has prepared an environmental impact report (EIR) on the project.

Plaintiffs Roland Barthelemy (Barthelemy) and the Southern California Association for Responsible Environmental Development (SCARED) (collectively plaintiffs) objected to the project before, during, and after the preparation of the EIR. The…