Eco-friendly group sues for tougher sanctions on runoff

Coastkeeper says the county’s plan doesn’t do enough to protect local streams from pollution

David Sneed
The San Luis Obispo Tribune
05/25/2008

The environmental group Coastkeeper has sued to have the county’s recently approved storm water management plan thrown out.

The lawsuit, filed April 30, alleges that the plan does not do enough to protect streams in the county from polluted runoff, said Gordon Hensley of San Luis Obispo Coastkeeper.

State water officials required that the county draw up the plan because water quality in many of the county’s streams is degraded.

The lawsuit is unlikely to have any effect on the recent controversy over runoff from car washing, Hensley said. Adequate laws are already on the books to reduce soap and other contaminants from reaching creeks.

County staff did an excellent job of drawing up the plan but problems arose

when the Board of Supervisors approved exemptions without analyzing the effect it would have on the environment, Hensley said.

“The county would never let the public do this,” he said.

The most significant exemption is for urban runoff, according to the lawsuit. This non-point source runoff often contains fertilizers, oil and animal waste.

Tim McNulty, deputy county counsel, said the storm water management plan is an improvement over having none. However, it appears to be not as rigorous as Hensley would pre-fer. “ It might be different if we adopted an ordinance that causes an increase in existing amount of stormwater pollution,” McNulty said. “I don’t believe even Mr. Hensley believes this to be the case.”

The lawsuit is the second challenge of the county’s storm water management program. The Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental groups have appealed the approval of the plan by the Regional Water Quality Control Board to the State Water Resources Control Board. That appeal is pending.

The next step in the lawsuit process is for a judge to schedule a settlement conference to see whether Hensley and the county can work out their differences without going to trial.