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OUR
GREATEST ACHEIVEMENT THUS FAR:
•
KEEPING SEWAGE OUT OF NEWPORT BAY
• DEFEND THE BAY WINS IRVINE RANCH
WATER DISTRICT CASE
• DEFEND THE BAY DEFEATS IRVINE CO./CITY
OF IRVINE
• DEFEND THE BAY WINS STATEWIDE PROTECTION
FOR CALIFORNIA’S UNIQUE MARINE RESERVES
• DEFEND THE BAY VS. U.S.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
Defend
The Bay Wins Statewide Protection for California’s Unique Coastal
Marine Reserves
Defend
The Bay has won a major victory that will protect Orange County’s
specially designated marine reserves, such as Newport Coast’s Crystal
Cove. Our legal victory comes before the State agency that regulates water
quality, the Water Resources Control Board. In a unanimous decision, the
three-member Board ruled that polluted runoff, Orange County’s no.
1 source of water pollution, can no longer be discharged into the Crystal
Cove Area of Special Biological Significance (ASBS) or any of the other
nearly thirty specially-designated preserves that dot the California coast.
Our victory was based on enforcing a long-ignored section of the California
Ocean Plan, which regulates ocean waters in the State. After more than
a month of factual research looking back as far as the late 1960s, we
prepared a forty-page legal brief that provided the basis for the State
Water Board’s action.
The implications of this decision are profound for California’s most
precious coastal resources, including those in Orange County. Without
legal protection from the most prevalent source of water pollution, special
marine areas would slowly degrade, losing the very qualities — crystalline
waters and rich marine life — that is our coastal heritage.
This accomplishment was the first major win scored by our recently established
project with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Defend
The Bay is proud to be able to add this contribution to the
work of many Orange County activists who banded together last year to
preserve and protect one of our State’s most exquisite coastal environments.
With your support, we hope that there will be many more victories for
the environment to come.
If
you would like a copy of the Court’s decision,
or press accounts of this exciting legal victory, please contact
4101 Birch Street, Suite 150
Newport Beach, California 92660
Information@DefendTheBay.org
Tel. 949-757-0017
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