Camarillo Sanitary Dist. v. State Water Resources Control Bd.

Summary

The California Court of Appeal, Fifth Appellate District, reviewed challenges to California’s Toxicity Provisions governing whole effluent toxicity testing under the Clean Water Act and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. The court held that the State Water Resources Control Board’s Test of Significant Toxicity could not be used in NPDES proceedings to measure whole effluent toxicity, but otherwise upheld the adoption of the Toxicity Provisions. The judgment was reversed in part, affirmed in part, and remanded for further proceedings.

Holdings

1. The Test of Significant Toxicity is not an approved method under the Clean Water Act's federal whole-effluent-toxicity testing scheme and cannot be used to determine compliance with NPDES permit requirements.
2. The State Board properly adopted the Toxicity Provisions as a statewide water-quality policy under Water Code sections 13140 and 13142, even though the provisions cannot replace federally approved methods in NPDES proceedings.
3. The State Board complied with the applicable Administrative Procedure Act requirements concerning necessity, authority, reference, consistency, nonduplication, and clarity.
4. The State Board properly used a substitute environmental document under the certified Water Quality Control (Basin)/208 Planning Program when adopting the statewide Toxicity Provisions.
5. The State Board's environmental analysis complied with CEQA and the applicable substitute-environmental-document requirements; substantial evidence supported its treatment of specific toxicity-control projects as speculative and its identification of monitoring and testing as the reasonably foreseeable method of compliance.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the Test of Significant Toxicity is an approved testing or statistical method under the Clean Water Act and 40 C.F.R. part 136 for determining whole effluent toxicity in NPDES proceedings.
2. Whether the Toxicity Provisions were authorized as a statewide water-quality policy under California Water Code sections 13140 and 13142.
3. Whether the State Board complied with the applicable California Administrative Procedure Act requirements when adopting the Toxicity Provisions.
4. Whether the State Board properly used a substitute environmental document under CEQA's certified regulatory-program provisions.
5. Whether the State Board's environmental analysis adequately addressed potentially significant impacts and reasonably foreseeable methods of compliance.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded