Asociacion de Gente Unida por el Agua v. Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board

In 2007, after decades of allowing most dairies to operate without any waste discharge requirements, defendant Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board) issued a general waste discharge order (Order) 1 for the purpose of regulating the waste from *1259 existing “milk cow dairies.” The Order purports to prohibit the further degradation of groundwater, as is required by the state’s antidegradation policy. However, the Order does not prohibit the discharge of waste into groundwater. Assuming that some dairy waste will reach the groundwater, the Order relies on groundwater monitoring to ensure that the groundwater is not further degraded. We shall conclude that the uncontradicted evidence in the record before the Regional Board indicated that the Order’s monitoring system of taking samples from domestic and agricultural supply wells is insufficient to detect groundwater degradation in a timely manner. Additionally, the Order contains no remediation measures in the event groundwater monitoring determines degradation has occurred.

It is the policy of the state (the antidegradation policy) 2 to regulate the disposal of wastes into the waters of the…