City of Burbank v. STATE WATER RESOURCES

• Decision Date: 04 April 2005
• Docket Number: No. B151175, No. B152562., No. S119248
• Citation: 108 P.3d 862,26 Cal.Rptr.3d 304,35 Cal.4th 613
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: CITY OF BURBANK, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. STATE WATER RESOURCES CONTROL BOARD et al., Defendants and Appellants. City of Los Angeles, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. State Water Resources Control Board et al., Defendants and Appellants.

26 Cal.Rptr.3d 304

35 Cal.4th 613

108 P.3d 862

CITY OF BURBANK, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. STATE WATER RESOURCES CONTROL BOARD et al., Defendants and Appellants.

City of Los Angeles, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. State Water Resources Control Board et al., Defendants and Appellants.

Nos. S119248, B151175, B152562.

Supreme Court of California.

April 4, 2005.

Rehearing Denied June 29, 2005.¹

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Manuel M. Medeiros, State Solicitor General, Richard M. Frank and Tom Greene, Chief Assistant Attorneys General, Mary E. Hackenbracht, Assistant Attorney General, Marilyn H. Levin, Gregory J. Newmark and David S. Beckman, Deputy Attorneys General, for Defendants and Appellants.

David S. Beckman, Los Angeles, and Dan L. Gildor, Berkeley, for Natural Resources Defense Counsel, Butte Environmental Council, California Coastkeeper Alliance, CalTrout, Clean Water Action, Clean Water Fund, Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life of Southern California, Coast Action Group, Defend the Bay, Ecological Rights Foundation, Environment in the Public Interest, Environmental Defense Center, Heal the Bay, Los Angeles Interfaith Environment Council, Ocean Conservancy, Orange County Coastkeeper, San Diego Baykeeper, Santa Barbara Channelkeeper, Santa Monica Baykeeper, Southern California Watershed Alliance, Ventura Coastkeeper, Waterkeeper Alliance, Waterkeepers Northern California, Westside Aquatics, Inc., and Wishtoyo Foundation as Amici Curiae on behalf of Plaintiffs and Appellants.

Downey, Brand, Seymour & Rohwer, Downey Brand, Melissa A. Thorme, Sacramento, Jeffrey S. Galvin, Nicole E. Granquist and Cassandra M. Ferrannini, Sacramento, for Plaintiffs and Appellants.

Dennis A. Barlow, City Attorney, and Carolyn A. Barnes, Assistant City Attorney, for Defendant and Appellant City of Burbank.

Rockard J. Delgadillo, City Attorney, and Christopher M. Westhoff, Assistant City Attorney, for Plaintiff and Appellant City of Los Angeles.

Rutan & Tucker and Richard Montevideo, Costa Mesa, for Cities of Baldwin Park, Bell, Cerritos, Diamond Bar, Downey, Gardena, Montebello, Monterey Park, Paramount, Pico Rivera, Rosemead, San Gabriel, San Marino, Santa Fe Springs, Sierra Madre, Signal Hill, Temple City and West Covina, the California Building Industry Association and the Building Industry Legal Defense Foundation as Amici Curiae on behalf of Plaintiffs and Appellants.

Stoel Rives and Lawrence S. Bazel, San Francisco, for Western Coalition of Arid States as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Plaintiffs and Appellants.

Richards, Watson & Gershon and John J. Harris, Los Angeles, for the League of California Cities as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Plaintiffs and Appellants. Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, Joseph A. Meckes, San Francisco; David W. Burchmore; and Alexandra Dapolito Dunn, for Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Plaintiffs and Appellants.

Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard & Smith and B. Richard Marsh, Los Angeles, for County Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Plaintiffs and Appellants.

Fulbright & Jaworski, Colin Lennard, Patricia Chen, Los Angeles; Archer Norris and Peter W. McGaw, Walnut Creek, for California Association of Sanitation Agencies as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Plaintiffs and Appellants.

KENNARD, J.

Federal law establishes national water quality standards but allows the states to enforce their own water quality laws so long as they comply with federal standards. Operating within this federal-state framework, California's nine Regional Water Quality Control Boards establish water quality policy. They also issue permits for the discharge of treated wastewater; these permits specify the maximum allowable concentration of chemical pollutants in the discharged wastewater.

The question here is this: When a regional board issues a permit to a wastewater treatment facility, must the board take into account the facility's costs of complying with the board's restrictions on pollutants in the wastewater to be discharged? The trial court ruled that California law required a regional board to weigh the economic burden on the facility against the expected environmental benefits of reducing pollutants in the wastewater discharge. The Court of Appeal disagreed. On petitions by the municipal operators of three wastewater treatment facilities, we granted review.

We reach the following conclusions: Because both California law and federal law require regional boards to comply with federal clean water standards, and because the supremacy clause of the United States Constitution requires state law to yield to federal law, a regional board, when issuing a wastewater discharge permit, may not consider economic factors to justify imposing pollutant restrictions that are less stringent than the applicable federal standards require. When, however, a regional board is considering whether to make the pollutant restrictions in a wastewater discharge permit more stringent than federal law requires, California law allows the board to take into account economic factors, including the wastewater discharger's cost of compliance. We remand this case for further proceedings to determine whether the pollutant limitations in the permits challenged here meet or exceed federal standards.

I. STATUTORY BACKGROUND

The quality of our nation's waters is governed by a "complex statutory and regulatory scheme ... that implicates both federal and state administrative responsibilities." (PUD No. 1 of Jefferson County v. Washington Department of Ecology (1994) 511 U.S. 700, 704, 114 S.Ct. 1900, 128 L.Ed.2d 716.) We first discuss California law, then federal law.

A. California Law

In California, the controlling law is the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act (Porter-Cologne Act), which was enacted in 1969. (Wat.Code, § 13000 et seq., added by Stats.1969, ch. 482, § 18, p. 1051.)² Its goal is "to attain the highest water quality which is reasonable, considering all demands being made and to be made on those waters and the total values involved, beneficial and detrimental, economic and social, tangible and intangible." (§ 13000.) The task of accomplishing this belongs to the State Water Resources Control Board (State Board) and the nine Regional Water Quality Control Boards; together the State Board and the regional boards comprise "the principal state agencies with primary responsibility for the coordination and control of water quality." (§ 13001.) As relevant here, one of those regional boards oversees the Los Angeles region (the Los Angeles Regional Board).³

Whereas the State Board establishes statewide policy for water quality control (§ 13140), the regional boards "formulate and adopt water quality control plans for all areas within [a] region" (§ 13240). The regional boards' water quality plans, called "basin plans," must address the beneficial uses to be protected as well as water quality objectives, and they must establish a program of implementation. (§ 13050, subd. (j).) Basin plans must be consistent with "state policy for water quality control." (§ 13240.)

B. Federal Law

In 1972, Congress enacted amendments (Pub.L. No. 92-500 (Oct. 18, 1972) 86 Stat. 816) to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq.), which, as amended in 1977, is commonly known as the Clean Water Act. The Clean Water Act is a "comprehensive water quality statute designed `to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation's waters.'" (PUD No. 1 of Jefferson County v. Washington Dept. of Ecology, supra, 511 U.S. at p. 704, 114 S.Ct. 1900, quoting 33 U.S.C. § 1251(a).) The Act's national goal was to eliminate by the year 1985 "the discharge of pollutants into the navigable waters" of the United States. (33 U.S.C. § 1251(a)(1).) To accomplish this goal, the Act established "effluent limitations," which are restrictions on the "quantities, rates, and concentrations of chemical, physical, biological, and other constituents"; these effluent limitations allow the discharge of pollutants only when the water has been satisfactorily treated to conform with federal water quality standards. (33 U.S.C. §§ 1311, 1362(11).)

Under the federal Clean Water Act, each state is free to enforce its own water quality laws so long as its effluent limitations are not "less stringent" than those set out in the Clean Water Act. (33 U.S.C. § 1370.) This led the California Legislature in 1972 to amend the state's Porter-Cologne Act "to ensure consistency with the requirements for state programs implementing the Federal Water Pollution Control Act." (§ 13372.)

Roughly a dozen years ago, the United States Supreme Court, in Arkansas v. Oklahoma (1992) 503 U.S. 91, 112 S.Ct. 1046, 117 L.Ed.2d 239, described the distinct roles of the state and federal agencies in enforcing water quality: "The Clean Water Act anticipates a partnership between the States and the Federal Government, animated by a shared objective: `to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation's waters.' 33 U.S.C. § 1251(a). Toward this end, [the Clean Water Act] provides for two sets of water quality measures. `Effluent limitations' are promulgated by the [Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)] and restrict the quantities, rates, and concentrations of specified substances which are discharged from point sources.⁴ See §§ 1311, 1314. `[W]ater quality standards' are, in general, promulgated by the States and establish the desired condition of a waterway. See § 1313. These standards supplement effluent limitations `so that numerous point sources, despite individual compliance with effluent limitations, may be further regulated to prevent water quality from falling below acceptable levels.' EPA v. California ex rel. State Water Resources Control Bd., 426 U.S. 200, 205, n. 12, 96 S.Ct. 2022, 2025, n. 12, 48 L.Ed.2d 578 (1976).

"The EPA provides...