Quantification Settlement Agreement Cases

With our apologies to T.S. Eliot, it appears that this is how more than a decade of contentious litigation over the quantification settlement agreement ends, “[n]ot with a bang, but a whimper,” as the County of Imperial (the County) and the Imperial County Air Pollution Control District (the Air District) have filed written stipulations to dismiss their remaining appeals in these coordinated cases, leaving only a protective cross-appeal by several respondents that will be rendered moot by the requested dismissals and an appeal of a postjudgment costs order by several other parties that remains to be resolved

The County and the Air District seek to dismiss their appeals pursuant to the terms of a settlement reached with one of their (now former) opponents— the Imperial Irrigation District (the Irrigation District). After nearly 12 years of legal fisticuffs — at trial and on appeal in both state and federal court — the Imperial County agencies have apparently decided that cooperation will serve better than contention to address the continuing deterioration of the Saltón Sea, which faces a sharp decrease in water inflow two years from now under the terms of the…