California Landowners Seek High Court Review Of Sediment TMDL Ruling

摘要

A group of California landowners is asking the Supreme Court to determine whether regulators can set total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) expressed as concentrations of pollutants contained in lake bed sediment - rather than more traditional measures such as mass per time or toxicity - after state courts upheld such a waterbody cleanup plan. The petitioners in Charles Conway Jr., et al. v. State Water Resources Control Board (WRCB), et al. argue high court review is warranted as there are more than 41,000 waterbodies in need of TMDLs but there is little, if any, judicial guidance on how such limits for lake bed or riverbed sediment may be expressed. Relevant documents are available on InsideEPA.com. See page 2 for details. (Doc. ID: 185308) Additionally, they argue that the California Court of Appeal, in upholding the state-developed TMDL for McGrath Lake, employed a rationale that directly conflicts with the Supreme Court's 2004 ruling in South Florida Water Management District v. Miccosukee Tribe of Indians and 2013 ruling in Los Angeles County Flood Control District v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. The California Supreme Court declined to hear the case June 17.