On Friday, Central Valley Eden Environmental Defenders, LLC filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of California against Building Material Distributors, Inc. alleging violations of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act.
According to the complaint, Eden is a California limited liability company and an environmental membership group. Eden states its organizational purpose is the protection, preservation and enhancement of California’s waterways through the enforcement of the Federal Clean Water Act and California’s Industrial General Permit by seeking redress from environmental harms caused by industrial dischargers who pollute the waters of the United States.
The complaint states that Building Material Distributors, Inc. is a California corporation located in Galt, California. Additionally, the complaint states the defendant is a facility that distributes construction building materials and maintains its own trucking fleet. The complaint further alleges the defendant stores industrial materials outdoors that are exposed to stormwater, eroded by wind and otherwise contaminates the surrounding watershed.
Eden alleges that stormwater at the defendant’s facility collects suspended sediment, dirt, metals and other pollutants as it flows towards the facility’s stormwater channels and eventually flows into California’s waterways. Eden argues that there are insufficient structural stormwater control measures installed at the defendant’s facility, and the best management practices at the facility are currently inadequate to prevent contaminated stormwater from discharging pollutants into the Consumnes River, a tributary of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta Waterways.
Eden further argues that the discharge of pollutants from contaminated stormwater flowing over the defendant’s facility has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to its members. Specifically, Eden states that the pollution has adversely impacted its members’ aesthetic and recreational interest in the Consumnes River and its associated waterways.
Eden brings seven causes of action against Building Material Distributors, Inc. including failure to prepare, implement, review and update an adequate Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan, failure to develop and implement an adequate monitoring and reporting program, submission of false annual reports to the regional water board, failure to implement the best available and conventional treatment technologies, discharges of contaminated stormwater in violation of permit conditions and the Clean Water Act, failure to comply with required exceedance response actions and failure to properly train facility employees and pollution prevention team. For the alleged causes of action, Eden seeks declaratory and injunctive relief, civil penalties of $56,460.00 per day/per violation for each violation of the Clean Water Act, attorney’s fees and costs.
