The City Attorney’s Office is soliciting proposals from qualified law firms to assist the City Attorney’s Office in providing legal services to the City, including LASAN, related to the investigation, evaluation, defense, and management of third-party claims for damages, lawsuits, and/or enforcement actions arising from or relating to the City of Los Angeles’s (City) wastewater treatment plants and associated permits, programs, and projects. In the short term, counsel will be assisting the City, potentially in coordination and under joint privilege with other agencies and/or jurisdictions, to challenge and seek revisions to the terms and conditions imposed by the California State Water Resources Control Board and/or Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (collectively, “Water Boards”) in each of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits associated with the City’s Los Angeles Glendale (LAG) and Donald C. Tillman (DCT) water reclamation plants, which, among other things, have recently mandated costly infrastructure that would fail to achieve permit or the State’s stated water quality objectives. This work would include preparing and filing petitions with the State Water Resources Control Board, and, if necessary, initiating and handling any judicial action. Counsel will also be responsible for the investigation, evaluation, defense, and management of any related enforcement and/or judicial actions relating to the City’s compliance with its NPDES permits, including related third-party claims.
