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OC Water Districts File Massive Lawsuit Over PFAS Contaminants

Eleven Orange County water agencies have joined in a lawsuit seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from DuPont, 3M and others whose carcinogenic chemicals have leached into groundwater aquifers and forced the closure of more than three dozen wells in the central and northern parts of the county.

California Landfill Sued Over Alleged Stormwater Pollution

A 340-acre landfill facility in Richmond, Calif., is releasing contaminated stormwater contaminated into nearby waters in violation of its federal water pollution permit, a conservation group says in a lawsuit filed in federal court. The West Contra Costa Sanitary Landfill has consistently released stormwater and non-stormwater containing high levels of iron, aluminum, and a high pH, according to the suit.

Rural California Communities Struggle To Provide Clean Drinking Water

Mo Mohsin has been trying to bring clean drinking water to the residents of the Cobles Corner mobile home park ever since he bought the property back in 2003. The struggle, however, has been all uphill.

Vallecitos Files $6.1M Suit Against San Diego County Water Authority

Whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting, so goes the old saying.

And in San Marcos, the Vallecitos Water District has filed a lawsuit against the San Diego County Water Authority and is seeking $6.1 million in reimbursement regarding a dispute over a direct connection to desalinated water from the Carlsbad Desalination Plant.

“Madness and Arrogance” Blamed for One Lawsuit Against Desert Groundwater Agency

Two lawsuits accusing the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority of ramming through a plan that ignores water rights and, according to one plaintiff, is intended to “destroy agriculture” were filed this week.

At issue is a controversial $2,000-per-acre-foot fee approved by the authority last month that would be charged to certain groundwater users over a five-year period. That money is intended to raise $50 million to buy Central Valley water and, somehow, bring it over the Sierra Nevadas to replenish the overdrafted desert aquifer.

Lawsuit Alleges Water Authority Failed to Deliver Desalinated Water to San Marcos

The Vallecitos Water District in San Marcos filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging the San Diego County Water Authority overcharged by nearly $6 million for desalinated water that was never delivered, despite an agreement to construct a pipeline for that exact purpose.

Colorado, 5 Other States Promise Lawsuits if Feds Fast-Track Approval of Utah’s Lake Powell Pipeline Project

For more than 20 years, negotiations among the seven states that rely on the Colorado River have avoided lawsuits, even as drought and population growth threaten the river’s flows.

That may change as a promise to rush the environmental review of a diversion project between the Colorado River’s upper and lower basins has six states suggesting lawsuits challenging the project could topple years of agreements.

California Leads Suit Against Trump Administration Over Weakened Environmental Laws

California and 20 other states sued the Trump administration over its plan to curtail environmental regulations in permitting infrastructure projects that can take years to complete and have long-lasting consequences on land and communities. Led by California and Washington, the lawsuit seeks to block changes the administration has proposed to how the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act is implemented. It was filed in federal court in San Francisco against the White House Council on Environmental Quality and its chairman, Mary Neumayr.

21 States Sue White House Over Rollback of Bedrock Environmental Law

A coalition of 21 states [including California] sued the Trump administration Friday for rolling back what they say is a “rule that is, at its heart, the gutting” of America’s bedrock environmental law.

Santa Monica-Based Group Wins Historic Wastewater Recycling Suit

Every day Hyperion Water Treatment Plant discharges enough treated wastewater into the ocean to fill the Rose Bowl 2.5 times over. Now a court has instructed state water officials to analyze whether it is “wasteful” and “unreasonable” to dump billions of gallons of wastewater into the sea.