Pollution Lawsuit Dismissed

A San Diego County Superior Court judge Thursday threw out the first major lawsuit challenging new rules by state officials aimed at reducing pollutants that wash from streets into the ocean during storms.

The decision was the first resolution in a string of legal challenges to the Clean Water Act rules brought by cities and the building industry that contend that compliance is too costly for the environmental benefits. A half-dozen similar lawsuits have been filed to battle rules enacted last year in Los Angeles County.

Judge Wayne L. Peterson dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Building Industry Assn. of San Diego and some cities. His five-page order declared that cleanup rules met all requirements of state and federal law and rejected nearly a dozen legal theories as to why the state’s Regional Water Quality Control Board overstepped its authority.

“We are disappointed in the ruling,” said Paul Singarella, one of the lawyers representing various building industry groups and the cities of Santee and San Marcos. “We continue to feel that there are issues of law and that this agency exceeded the bounds of its discretion.”

But David Beckman, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, called the ruling a significant victory for clean beaches. He said he expects the decision to influence other judges grappling with the same issues.

“Developers and their allies in local government have launched a full-scale attack on efforts to end the No. 1 source of water pollution in California,” Beckman said. “This is going to have a big effect on that battle.”

A number of cities are bridling at rules that require street sweeping, public-education campaigns and stepped-up inspections of messy industries to prevent oil, pesticides, dog droppings and other waste from washing into the ocean.