California Ass'n of Sanitation Agencies v. State Water Resources Control Board

Plaintiffs California Association of Sanitation Agencies (CASA) and the City of Vacaville (Vacaville) (collectively, the Municipalities) 1 appeal a judgment entered after the trial court denied their petitions for writ of mandate challenging actions of the California Regional Water Quality Control Board for the Central Valley Region (Regional Board) and the State Water Resources Control Board (State Board) (collectively, the Boards). They contend beneficial use designations in the Water Quality Control Plan for the *1443 Sacramento and San Joaquin River Basins (the Basin Plan) are unlawful, and that the Basin Plan unlawfully incorporates by reference standards and criteria adopted by other agencies. We shall affirm the judgment without prejudice to any right Vacaville may have to seek further Basin Plan amendments or initiate legal proceedings.

I. BACKGROUND

In order to provide a legal context for the history of this case, we summarize the statutory and regulatory scheme governing water quality.

“In 1972, Congress enacted amendments ( Pub.L. No. 92-500 (Oct. 18, 1972) 86 Stat. 816 ) to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act ( 33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq.), which, as…