United States v. City of San Diego
Opinion
Opinion
Brewster, J.
ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF-IN-TERVENOR SIERRA CLUB’S MOTION FOR ATTORNEY’S FEES
I. INTRODUCTION
Plaintiff-intervenor Sierra Club filed a motion for attorney’s fees in this action pursuant to 33 U.S.C. § 1365 (d) on June 20, 1997. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (the United States or EPA), the State of California (State), and the City of San Diego (City) opposed the motion. This matter came on for hearing on April 24,1998. Upon due consideration of the moving and responding papers and the arguments of counsel, the Court hereby GRANTS Sierra Club’s motion for attorney’s fees.
II. BACKGROUND
During the 1980s, the City of San Diego was a chronic violator of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (Clean Water Act or CWA), 33 U.S.C. §§ 1251-1387 . The City’s violations ranged from wastewater overflows along City sewer lines to the City’s failure to treat raw sewage to secondary treatment standards before discharging it into the Pacific Ocean. In 1988, the United States and the State of California (State) instituted a CWA civil enforcement action against the City. By 1989, the parties were in the process of negotiating a proposed Consent Decree that would have…