Lawsuit alleges quarry operator Granite Rock Company illegally polluted Pajaro River

“Graniterock habitually violates its Clean Water Act permit, pays a trivial penalty and then continues polluting the Pajaro River as usual,” said Laura Deehan, Environment California’s state director. “Graniterock poses a risk to some of California’s most vulnerable species when it chooses to pay to pollute instead of addressing the systemic issues causing the pollution.”

Graniterock collects stormwater and wastewater from a 438-acre portion of the quarry, about 11 miles inland from Monterey Bay. During the rainy winter months, the stormwater and wastewater often exceed the capacity of an onsite holding pond and the pollutant-laden overflow is discharged into the Pajaro.

The lawsuit alleges that every winter and spring, Graniterock violates legal limits on the concentrations of dissolved solids such as sodium and sulfate, and of heavy metals such as aluminum, iron, and molybdenum. These pollutants further degrade water quality in the Pajaro River, which is already contaminated by agricultural pollution. This pollution impacts both human recreation in the Pajaro and many animal habitats. Some of the affected species include the threatened South-Central California Coast steelhead and California red-legged frog.

“Congress allowed for citizen enforcement of the Clean Water Act so that the public could play a vital role in the protection of water quality,” said Chris Shutes, executive director of CSPA. “When violations become habitual, citizens can demand legal accountability, and that’s what we aim to do here.”

Environment California and CSPA also allege in the suit that Graniterock fails to monitor its wastewater discharges as required by its Clean Water Act permit, missing months and months’ worth of discharge data during the most critical times. Without proper monitoring at the required times, the groups say, there is no way to know which pollutants, in what quantities, Graniterock’s Wilson Quarry discharges into California’s coastal waters.

Under the federal Clean Water Act’s “citizen suit” provision, private citizens affected by violations of the law are allowed to bring an enforcement action against the violator in federal court after providing 60 days’ notice of the violations to the violator and to state and federal environmental agencies. The groups sent their notice of intent on February 3, 2026. Citizens can sue for civil penalties and a court order requiring the violator to comply with the law and remediate the harm caused by its violations.

Graniterock’s Clean Water Act permit is currently up for renewal by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board for the Central Coast Region. According to Environment California and CSPA, a renewed permit cannot be any less protective of water quality than the current permit.

“No one should be able to renew a discharge permit without having a clear plan for coming into compliance,” said Deehan. “We hope that this lawsuit, supplementing the state’s repeated penalties, will help reach that objective.”

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Environment California is a statewide, citizen-based environmental advocacy organization working for clean air, clean water, clean energy, wildlife and open spaces, and a livable climate. For more information, visit https://environmentamerica.org/california/.

California Sportfishing Protection Alliance is a public benefit conservation organization established for the purpose of conserving, restoring, and enhancing the state’s water quality, wildlife and fishery resources, aquatic ecosystems, and associated riparian habitats. For more information, visit: https://calsport.org/.

The organizations are represented by the Boston-based, non-profit National Environmental Law Center, which represents citizen groups across the country in actions to enforce the nation’s environmental laws, and by environmental attorneys David Nicholas of Newton, Massachusetts and Andrew Packard of The Law Offices of Andrew L. Packard in Petaluma, California. For more information, visit http://www.NELC.org.

https://environmentamerica.org/california/media-center/lawsuit-alleges-quarry-operator-granite-rock-company-illegally-polluted-pajaro-river/