At issue in Ctr. for Biological Diversity v. Cty. of San Bernardino, 2016 WL 2742824 (Cal. Ct. App. May 10, 2016) was a proposed project to pump fresh groundwater from an underground aquifer located below land in the Mojave Desert.

The project is part of a public/private partnership to prevent waste of the water in the aquifer and to transport the water to consumers in southern California. The Center for Biological Diversity challenged approval of the project under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and filed a petition for a writ of mandate.

The trial court denied the petition for a writ of mandate, and the plaintiffs raised several issues on appeal.

First, the Center for Biological Diversity contended Santa Margarita was “wrongly designated as the lead agency for the project and this error so tainted the environmental review process that such designation required preparation of a new environmental impact report (EIR).”  They further argued that the EIR’s project description was wrong and did not provide an accurate duration for pumping of the water. Finally, plaintiffs argued the project would pump more water from the aquifer than accounted for in the EIR.

The appellate court, however, found that Santa Margarita was properly designated as the lead agency because “it is jointly carrying out the project with the property owner and because it is the agency with the principal authority for approving and supervising the project as a whole.” The court also found the project in-line with the EIR’s purpose as “it will conserve water otherwise lost to brine and evaporation” and improve water supplies throughout California.

In affirming the trial court’s judgment, the appellate court concluded there was “no prejudicial abuse of discretion in approving the project and certifying the EIR.”