The United States Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a case determining whether it is the responsibility of Los Angeles County or individual cities to clean stormwater before it flows into the ocean. The lawsuit was filed by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Santa Monica Baykeeper, now the Los Angeles Waterkeeper, against the Los Angeles County Flood Control District (FCD).
The NRDC and Waterkeeper say the FCD should be responsible for cleaning and treating polluted water. The FCD says the responsibility belongs to the 85 cities and 140 unincorporated communities of the county that generate the water.
The FCD claims if it loses the case it will have “huge new costs” and need “tens of billions of dollars” to construct and manage new infrastructure. If the FCD wins the case, the responsibility of water cleanup will remain with the cities and communities in the county that produce the water. A complication of the case lies in the definition of what constitutes pollution discharge.
The case started in 2008 when the NRDC and Waterkeeper filed a suit alleging the county was responsible for the urban runoff that picks up bacteria as it flows through the Los Angeles and San Gabriel rivers to the Pacific Ocean.
As of press time Tuesday, the results of the case were not known.