The Natural Resources Defense Council and Santa Monica Baykeeper — now Los Angeles Waterkeeper — sued the flood control district in 2008 alleging that it had violated its storm water permit# The lawsuit cited high pollution readings at monitoring stations in the county's rivers#
Last year, the U#S# 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the county was liable for pollution in the Los Angeles and San Gabriel rivers, and referred to the water flowing from the "concrete channels" into the natural part of the lower river as discharges of pollutants#
The Supreme Court said the 9th Circuit's opinion rested on a mistaken premise and reversed it# The water flowing from one "concrete" section of the river to another section cannot be deemed a "discharge" of pollutants, the court said# Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said "no pollutants are 'added' to a water body when water is merely transferred between different portions of that body."
via www.latimes.com
What is being spent and will be spent on litigation likely could have gone a long way to delaing with the water quality issues.