SACRAMENTO, California — An environmental group sued the Port of Los Angeles on Tuesday, claiming the port violated the Clean Water Act by sending pollutants including fecal bacteria and copper into San Pedro Bay.
The lawsuit, filed by Environment California in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleges that untreated wastewater often bypasses the port’s too-small stormwater treatment system to end up in the bay, leading to pollution that has exceeded federal limits, closed beaches, and posed possible harm to fish and people.
Both the Inner Cabrillo Beach and the Los Angeles/Long Beach Inner Harbor, which border the bay, are on federal lists of impaired bodies of water because of pollution.
“Everyone in and around the Los Angeles Harbor knows that the water quality is terrible. We are suing to get the Port’s pollution of San Pedro Bay under control and make it a model for improving water quality,” said Laura Deehan, Environment California’s state director, in a press release. “If a well-funded city department pollutes in violation of its Clean Water Act permit limits, how can the city expect anyone else to comply?”
