CADIZ LAND COMPANY, INC., Plaintiff and Appellant,
v.
RAIL CYCLE, L.P., et al., Defendants and Respondents.
CADIZ LAND COMPANY, INC., Plaintiff and Respondent,
v.
COUNTY OF SAN BERNARDIONO et al., Defendants and Appellants.
No. E024373., No. E024532.
Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division 2, California.
Aug. 18, 2000.
SUMMARY
An agricultural company filed an action challenging, under the California Environmental Quality Act (Pub. Resources Code, 21000 et seq.) (CEQA), a county's certification of an environmental impact report (EIR) and related approvals of a landfill project located in a desert area within the vicinity of plaintiff's agricultural operations, alleging that the landfill would have adverse impacts on those operations and would contaminate the groundwater. Plaintiff used the groundwater in an aquifer underlying the landfill and its own land for its agricultural operations, and plaintiff also intended to extract the groundwater and sell it to a water agency. The trial court entered judgment in favor of the county and the proposed operator of the landfill. (Superior Court of San Bernardino County, No. BCV02340, Carl E. Davis, Judge. [FN*] )
FN* Retired judge of the San Bernardino Superior Court, assigned by the Chief Justice pursuant to article VI, section 6 of the California Constitution.
The Court of Appeal reversed, with directions to issue a writ of mandate setting aside the county's decision to certify the EIR and related trial court decisions that were contingent upon the certification of the EIR. The court held that the EIR was not in compliance with CEQA. Although it mentioned that an aquifer containing potable water underlay the landfill site, it did not discuss the volume of water contained in the aquifer or its size, which was a valuable and relatively scarce resource in the desert region. Although the EIR discussed factors such as groundwater recharge, groundwater downgradient, groundwater flow, change to slope of the water table due to pumping, risk of contamination, overdraft, projected drawdown, groundwater velocity, and cone of depression location, the failure to discuss the volume of groundwater in the aquifer constituted prejudicial error and invalidated the *75 certification of the EIR. The EIR did not provide a sufficient description of the environmental setting or adequate information for the public and governmental agencies to evaluate whether the landfill presented a significant adverse impact on the groundwater contained in the aquifer. In order to weigh and evaluate the risk of groundwater contamination, the volume of water subject to contamination was required. The court held that the other portions of the EIR were adequate, and disagreement among experts concerning certain conclusions did not constitute grounds for overturning the EIR. (Opinion by Gaut, J., with McKinster, Acting P. J., and Ward, J., concurring.)