After more than a decade in court, Six Flags Magic Mountain has reached a new agreement to manage its water pollution, at the behest of Southern California environmental advocates.
As part of the settlement, Magic Mountain has agreed to a new system for treating the polluted water that comes from the theme park and committed millions to projects that is intended to help restore the Santa Clara River’s ecosystem.
The three environmental groups that brought the suit against the theme park — Los Angeles Waterkeeper, Friends of the Santa Clara River and the Wishtoyo Foundation — are represented by Sycamore Law founder Daniel Cooper.
Cooper said he hopes that, more than 10 years after Magic Mountain initially agreed to address its storm and wastewater discharges to keep pollution out of the Santa Clara River, the theme park is more serious about environmental compliance.
“I think they mean it this time,” Cooper said.
In a press release issued Wednesday, Magic Mountain announced that the park had reached an agreement with the plaintiffs to “virtually eliminate polluted runoff from the theme park” and that the agreement would restore and enhance the Santa Clara River habitat.
Magic Mountain President Brian Oerding said in the release the organization is looking forward to implementing the Santa Clara River-related projects.
“Magic Mountain is dedicated to protecting natural resources in the Santa Clara River watershed,” said Oerding. “We look forward to engaging in these projects that will further the protection of natural and cultural resources in this diverse landscape.”
The plaintiffs initially sued Magic Mountain in 2012 over concerns about the park’s polluted water discharges, which included stormwater runoff, or rainwater that flows over urban infrastructure and into drains and waterways, and wastewater.
In 2015, the park agreed to put the water from the site into the ground on a set schedule, reporting periodically to the environmental advocates who had brought the case into court, Cooper said.
But the theme park hit a snag while trying to obtain a permit from the Regional Water Quality Control Board to dump its water, Cooper said: The Santa Clara River has such high salt content that it’s illegal to add more, and the board was concerned Magic Mountain’s salty water discharges — particularly wastewater from its rides — would go straight to the river if disposed of in the ground.
Cooper said that Magic Mountain “basically disappeared” from the treatment report process, incurring thousands of dollars in fines from the regional board.
In February, the plaintiffs filed a motion to hold the park in contempt of court. Cooper said that Magic Mountain had until May 15 to either settle or be subject to a contempt ruling by the federal district court judge.
Judge Stephen Wilson signed off Monday on a consent decree that binds the park to a new water pollution management plan — as well as $2 million for environmental restoration projects in the Santa Clara River.
Under the new plan, the park will segregate some of its water and send it to treatment plants, pending permits from the regional water board, the L.A. County Public Works Department and L.A. County Sanitation.
If those permits aren’t approved, the park is ordered to “develop a pollution reduction plan for wastewater that discharges to the Santa Clara River” and present the plan to the plaintiffs within 455 days, according to the consent decree.
One of the biggest restoration projects the park has agreed to contribute to as part of the settlement is the removal of a concrete barrier preventing the endangered southern steelhead trout from moving upstream, a vital part of the trout’s spawning process.
The park will contribute $730,000 to efforts to remove the barrier and construct a bridge to replace it.
