Boeing secures significant win in appeal of stormwater discharge permit conditions

Client(s) Boeing Company, The

Jones Day secured an important victory on behalf of The Boeing Company ("Boeing") in an appeal before the California Court of Appeals, Second Appellate District, challenging new conditions in a 2024 stormwater discharge permit issued by the Regional Water Quality Control Board. The permit imposed a new monitoring requirement for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) using a highly sensitive testing methodology --a methodology so flawed that the EPA has not approved it --as well as a new effluent limitation for aluminum in stormwater discharges. The Firm advanced statutory arguments challenging the permit conditions, including asserting that the Regional Board failed to conduct cost-benefit balancing that was required under the California Water Code (Porter-Cologne Act) before imposing the new PCB monitoring requirement. The Court of Appeals agreed, holding that the Regional Board was required to balance the benefits and burdens of the monitoring requirement and failed to do so.

The Boeing Company v. Regional Water Quality Control Board, Los Angeles Region, No. B344489 (Cal. App. 2d)