Environmental Groups Challenge State Water Resources Control Board’s Order Modifying Irrigated Lands Program Order for Central Coast Region

December 2023

California Water Law & Policy Reporter, Volume 34, Number 3


A coalition of environmental plaintiff groups filed a petition for writ of mandate against the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) on October 27, 2023, in the Sacramento County Superior Court. (San Jerardo Cooperative, Inc., et. al. v. State Water Resources Control Board, et al., Case No. 23WM000108 (Sac. Cty. Super. Ct.,).) The coalition, composed of San Jerardo Cooperative, Comité de Salinas, Monterey Coastkeeper, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Institute for Fisheries Resources, California Sportfishing Alliance, California Coastkeeper, and Santa Barbara Channelkeeper (collectively, Petitioners), seeks to overturn the State Water Board’s Water Quality Order 2023-0081 (Order 2023-0081). (San Jerardo Cooperative, Inc., et. al. v. State Water Resources Control Board, et al., Petition for Writ of Mandate.) Order 2023-0081 modified the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board’s (Central Coast Regional Board) General Waste Discharge Requirements for Discharges from Irrigated Lands Order No. R3-2021-0040 (Ag Order 4.0).

Subscribers to the California Water Law & Policy Reporter or the Western Water Law & Policy Reporter can read the full article here.