Newton-Enloe

Plaintiffs petitioned the trial court for an order compelling California’s State Department of Public Health and its director (collectively the Department) to prepare and submit to the Legislature a safe drinking water plan (plan) as required in Health and Safety Code section 116355. The trial court denied the petition. We presume that, in doing so, the trial court concluded that the statutory requirement to prepare and submit the plan had been suspended. We disagree and reverse the judgment. The matter is remanded to enable the trial court to decide, in the first instance, whether the requirements of Code of Civil Procedure section 1085 have been met.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORIES

Plaintiffs are Cynthia A. Newton-Enloe and an organization called the A.G.U.A. Coalition. 1 Plaintiffs filed a verified petition for alternative writ of mandate and writ of mandate on November 17, 2009. They allege that Health and Safety Code section 116355 (section 116355) requires that the Department submit to the Legislature a plan every five years and that no such plan has been completed since 1995. Plaintiffs contend they are intended beneficiaries of the statutory mandate to prepare…