Costa Rica’s Administrative Court last week threw out a case filed by the San José Municipality, the Costa Rican Chamber of Commerce (UCCAEP), the Chamber of Construction, the Costa Rican Chamber of Commerce, and others against the Costa Rican National Groundwater, Irrigation and Drainage Service (SENARA), according to a report in the daily Costa Rican Elpais.cr.

The plaintiffs challenged a 2014 decision which declares that technical guidelines regarding land use and water resources are of a mandatory nature.

The suit, which was declared “inappropriate” by the court, petitioned for the annulment of SENARA’s grid for establishing land use criteria based on the vulnerability of aquifers to contamination.

The land use and water resources grid is an instrument that is enshrined in a constitutional court decision, and grants the state the power to determine the type of protection to be given to the country’s underground aquifers.

SENARA determines the type of land use permitted based on a technical analyses that considers the type of soil and the type of development planned in the environs of aquifers and other water sources.