McCarthy
Natural Resources Defense Council v. McCarthy
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Tigar, J.
ORDER DENYING DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS
Re: ECF No.
Before the Court is Defendants’ motion to dismiss Plaintiffs’ complaint. The Court will deny the motion.
1. BACKGROUND
A. Factual History
This case concerns actions taken by the State of California following Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr.’s January 17, 2014, Proclamation of a “State of Emergency” throughout California due to severe drought conditions. ECF No. 1-1 at 5. 2 In particular, the case focuses on the waters subject to the 1995 San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary Water Quality Control Plan (“Bay-Delta Plan”) and the Water Quality Control Plan for the Sacramento River Basin and San *494 Joaquin River Basin, 4th Edition (“Central Valley Plan”), which implement water quality standards 3 issued by the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) and approved by the EPA. ECF No. 1 ¶¶ 1, 2, 4. A 2006 plan issued by the SWRCB updated the 1995 Plan without amending the water quality standards. Id ¶ 33. “After adopting the Bay-Delta [Plan], SWRCB allocated primary responsibility for meeting several of the standards to [the Federal Bureau of Reclamation (“Reclamation”) ] and [the California Department…