OC judge voids some of SoCal's clean water laws

Thierry Patrick Colaw, a superior court judge in the OC, has legally set aside water quality standards in L.A. and Ventura counties, saying L.A.'s Regional Water Quality Control Board failed to do its homework. Specifically, he takes issue with the regional Basin Plan, approved in 2005.

Here's Mark Gold, president of Heal the Bay:

In essence, the judge's order has completely paralyzed the Regional Water Board and crippled it from carrying out its most important duties -- safeguarding public health. Worried about swimming at polluted beaches?  Apparently, Judge Colaw isn’t. Forget about any enforcement of the regulations that mandate beaches free of fecal bacteria. Sick and tired of those 10 feet high piles of trash on the beach in Long Beach after the first flush? What about those noxious algal blooms that reek to high heaven and choke off all aquatic life? The judge doesn’t seemingly care too much about those either.

I’m sure the state and the environmental community will soon appeal this hellacious decision, but in the mean time, don’t count on any state effort to keep our beaches and waterways clean. The Regional Water Board just cancelled a workshop on the Ventura County stormwater permit, despite the fact that the permit is long overdue.

See Mark's full post, in HTB's new blog, Spouting Off. And here's the legalese of the ruling:

YOU ARE HEREBY DIRECTED AND COMMANDED, UPON RECEIPT OF THIS WRIT, IN ACCORDANCE WITH YOUR RESPECTIVE OBLIGATIONS UNDER THE LAW:

"To void and set aside Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board Resolution No. 2005-003, dated March 3, 2005, wherein the 2004 Triennial Review of the Water Quality Control Plan for the Los Angeles Region ("Basin Plan") was concluded..."

Anybody up for a swim?

-- Veronique de Turenne

Comments

[JED]

that makes me sad

[jelj]

wow. talk about your activist judges.... why this was even contested, i have no idea.

[William]

Good old Orange County.

[Birddog]

Its amazing and appaling to hear that one man, Judge Colslaw, can override what amounts to years of scientific study and political comprimise to impose his own subjective bias on a public saftey issue. I wonder whats next, Colslaw overriding a Health Department ruling that a particular decrepit taco stand be shuttered because of unsanitary conditons, simply because he might like their tacos? Well, I for one will not be visiting Orange County beaches for a while until you've removed THIS wacko...

Birddog

[jkdunn]

Abviously the appearance of clean beaches is important to the tourist trade.
It is obviously more important than public health.

[Tommy]

Absolutely disgusting. His Honor must be into hiking.

[Pat]

I recommend that Judge Colslaw go swimming in the ocean next time it's heavily polluted. He may reverse his decision after he's been hospitalized for E. coli infection.

[LBC]

How the hell does this pass for journalism?

A judge ruled against a law with good intentions (no background, no info if the law is overkill or is even effective).

Here is one activist in favor of the old rule blasting the judge.

Pile on.

No wonder the Times readership is plummeting. I'd demand more from a high school newsie.

[Mark]

I can't blame commenters for acting like a mob, but the original post is part of the L.A. Times: why not give the background and the rest of the story, rather than just linking to a tendentious, one-side blog post. I know it cuts into your lunch hour to pick up a phone and call an attorney to get the whole story, but that's what you're paid to do.

[Lois Arkin]

With jurists of this ilk, everyone beware: our drinking water may be next. Best to start learning how to clean our gray and black water in our neighborhoods via biological living machines , taking care of our own waste right in our neighborhoods. We might start being a little less wasteful of our most precious resource. Incidentally, anyone know who voted this guy in, or appointed him, or if elected, how many of us failed to do our homework on the judges?

[Sam I am]

What's one-sided? The judge threw out part of LA's clean water act. That's all the item says and that's there is to it. Now we have to see what anyone's going to do about it.

[rdaybell]

Finally a Judge slows down the craziness. Perhaps we can get him to rule on some other wacko enviromental decisons being forced on us by out of control state bureacrats.

[Lightning Larry]

the judge did the right thing. the regional water quality control board has gone way out of it's boundries and imposed punishment on the citizens of various parts of california. a board is needed but it's good to see someone rule against their
decisions that single out families that don't do anything all the neighboring familes around them do. make sence? didn't think so. the rwqcb issued a cease and desist order against my home to stop using our septic tank but didn't issue one to the neighboring 1,445 homes in our area doing the exact same thing. they call it random inforcement but when you are one of the ramdoms it makes you take a different look at that board. they need judges to control them. i for one say yes judge, keep up the good work.