Surfrider Foundation v. The International Boundary and Water Commission United States Section

I. BACKGROUND

24 On June 25, 2020, the Parties filed a Joint Motion to Stay requesting that the court 25 stay this action and the related actions “while the United States Environmental Protection 26 Agency [(“EPA”)] . . . identifies and moves towards the construction of transboundary 27 28 1 pollution control infrastructure in Tijuana River Valley.” (Doc. No. 91 at 3). The Parties’ 2 request was based on the enactment of the United States-Mexico-Canada Implementation 3 Act (“USMCA”) on January 29, 2020, “which appropriated to the EPA $300 million for 4 the construction of priority wastewater treatment works to address transboundary pollution 5 in the Tijuana River Valley, and other areas of the border.” Id. at 5. 6 At a June 2, 2020 meeting, the EPA announced it would launch a “roughly one-year 7 public process” to evaluate the technical, environmental, and financial feasibility of various 8 potential projects, the results of which would inform what projects would be constructed 9 in the Tijuana River Valley using USMCA funds. Id. at 5-6. According to the Parties, the 10 projects the EPA intended to study were “substantially similar in concept to those…