Los Angeles Can't Fight Pacific Pollution Ruling

(CN) – The 9th Circuit on Wednesday declined to review its ruling that Los Angeles County discharged polluted stormwater runoff into the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers, ultimately polluting the Pacific Ocean with sewage and trash.     A three-judge panel in Pasadena that filed the original March decision voted unanimously to deny a rehearing, and no active judge with the full court requested a vote on whether to rehear the case en banc.     Wednesday’s order leaves intact a March decision in the highly publicized suit, filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Santa Monica Baykeeper.      The groups took action when pollution levels in the Malibu Creek and the Los Angeles, San Gabriel and Santa Clara Rivers had risen in excess of those allowed by the county’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit.     Though the 9th Circuit ruled that Los Angeles’ MS4 stormwater runoff system had dumped harmful pollutants into the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers, it said there was not enough evidence to determine whether the county was responsible for pollution in the Santa Clara River and Malibu Creek.