Port of LA Settles Stormwater Pollution Lawsuit

The Port of Los Angeles has agreed to stop the discharge of effluent and restore the city’s harbor as part of settling a lawsuit in which the port was accused of violating the federal Clean Water Act. A U.S. District Court judge has approved the settlement, which resolves a suit brought by Environment California last year.

In the lawsuit, the group had alleged that the port had repeatedly discharged untreated wastewater with illegal levels of toxic copper and fecal bacteria into the harbor since 2019. During the period, the port is alleged to have conducted over 2,000 illegal discharges. The group had also alleged that the port’s stormwater treatment system was undersized and that, as a result, untreated wastewater frequently bypassed the system entirely, ending up in the harbor.

Environment California had filed the suit under the Clean Water Act’s “citizen suit” provision, which allows private citizens affected by violations to sue. The Act requires permitted facilities, including ports, to monitor their discharges and to submit publicly available reports to the government with the results of the monitoring. Environment California carried out an analysis of the publicly available records and found that the Port of Los Angeles violated the Act over 2,000 times since 2019, all at a single stormwater outfall.

The Port of Los Angeles, the busiest container port in the western hemisphere, has agreed to a settlement and committed to improving its management of stormwater and groundwater. The port will be required to treat stormwater to ensure that fecal bacteria stay out of the harbor, and it must redirect groundwater contaminated with pollutants to the Terminal Island Water Reclamation Plant for treatment before it can be reused.

As part of the settlement, the port will pay $1.3 million to the Rose Foundation For Communities & The Environment to restore the Los Angeles Harbor and San Pedro Bay. The majority of funds will be earmarked for a multi-year project to remove tonnes of trash from San Pedro Bay. Port of Los Angeles will also pay a $130,000 civil penalty to the U.S. Treasury.

“Californians count on having a clean, vibrant coastline, but that’s not compatible with contaminated effluent that can lap up on our world-renowned shores,” said Laura Deehan, Environment California’s state director. “This settlement is a great step toward a cleaner, safer San Pedro Bay, and it demonstrates the vital role that citizen lawsuits play in the enforcement of our federal environmental laws.”

Located in San Pedro Bay, the Port of Los Angeles covers 7,500 acres of land and water along 43 miles of waterfront and is one of the worlds’ busiest seaports. In 2024, the port handled a total of 10.3 million container units, a 20 percent increase compared to 8.6 million TEU in 2023.

The settlement comes as studies show that U.S beaches are some of the most contaminated. In 2022, 1,761 out of 3,192 tested beaches in the country (55 percent) experienced at least one day on which fecal contamination reached potentially unsafe levels. In California alone, the problem is entrenched with fecal bacteria being found in 193 beaches out of 256 beaches that were tested.