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| | Boardman Power Plant Has Been Shut Down!
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As of last week, Portland General Electric (PGE) has finally shut down the Boardman coal-fired power plant. This means that the only coal-fired power plant in Oregon is done burning coal for good! Boardman was the largest single stationary source of greenhouse gases in Oregon, as well as a major source of harmful particulate matter and other pollution.
In 2008 Earthrise, along with outside co-counsel, George Hays, represented Sierra Club, Northwest Environmental Defense Center (NEDC), Columbia Riverkeeper, Friends of the Columbia Gorge, and Hells Canyon Preservation Council, in filing a lawsuit over years of Clean Air Act violations at the Boardman plant. The suit sought to force PGE to make upgrades that would reduce the plant’s nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions, among other things. The plant was the cause of smog and acid rain, and pollution that diminished visibility from Mount Hood to the Columbia River Gorge.
After several years of intense litigation, including key legal victories by Plaintiffs, in 2011 PGE agreed in a consent decree to make interim pollution reductions and then cease burning coal at the plant by the end of this year. The successes of Earthrise and our clients have forced the electric company and the state to rely less on coal and more on cleaner energy sources.
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| Big Win for San Francisco Bay!
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On behalf of our client San Francisco Baykeeper, Earthrise just won an important case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California reversing EPA’s determination that some 1,300 acres of Cargill, Inc.’s salt ponds in Redwood City, California are not protected by the Clean Water Act.
Granting our motion for summary judgment, the Court vacated the Trump Administration’s “negative jurisdictional determination” issued in 2019, which had cleared the way for Cargill to permanently fill the salt ponds to build condos and other commercial buildings. The ponds have been used by Cargill for decades for industrial salt production, but they were created by impounding natural marshes and other tributaries of San Francisco Bay. Baykeeper and other advocates have been fighting for the restoration of the Bay’s historic marshlands as important wildlife habitat and a crucial barrier against rising sea levels caused by climate change.
EPA’s final decision—which the Court found to be contrary to law—virtually ignored the rigorous analysis and scientific conclusions of the EPA’s regional office in San Francisco, which in 2016 issued a draft jurisdictional determination finding the Cargill salt ponds were indeed “waters of the United States” protected by the Clean Water Act.
Our client had this to say about the decision: “Only Trump’s crooked EPA would ignore its own regional office to do the bidding of a corporate bad actor and declare that ponds aren’t really water,” said Sejal Choksi-Chugh, the Executive Director at San Francisco Baykeeper. “The South Bay’s salt ponds are in fact wet and very much connected to the Bay -- not dry land as bizarrely claimed by the administration. This ruling is a big legal win for common sense and for San Francisco Bay. Cargill’s irresponsible development proposals will now and in the future have to comply with the Clean Water Act and protect the Bay and local residents.”
Allison LaPlante and Jamie Saul were the lead lawyers on this case. We could not have achieved this win without the hard work of our clinic students, including Audrey Leonard (Class of 2020), Kelsey Furman (3L), Hannah Clements (Class of 2020), and Harrison Beck (3L). We are joined in this victory by co-plaintiffs Save the Bay, Committee for Green Foothills, and Citizens’ Committee to Complete the Refuge, represented by Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP; and the State of California, represented by the California Attorney General’s Office.
Click here to read the coalition’s joint press release. Click here to see news coverage of this important victory from the links on our website.
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In This Issue
- Protecting San Francisco Bay
- Settling enforcement suits to clean the Columbia River
- A new clinic year!
- Welcome to our newest fellow, Bridgett!
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Please become a monthly donor of Earthrise to help sustain our important work!
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| | Introducing our Newest Legal Fellow
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Earthrise is excited to announce the hiring of our newest legal fellow, Bridgett Buss. She joined us this past August 2020. After graduating from California State University, Fullerton in 2011 Bridgett worked in the entertainment industry for six years before switching gears to pursue environmental law at Lewis and Clark. In law school Bridgett served as a volunteer and student board member with Northwest Environmental Defense Center and earned a certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law. When not shut in by a global pandemic Bridgett enjoys dodgeball, gardening, and exploring the beautiful PNW. We are thrilled to have Bridgett on board!
As we welcome one fellow, we must bid farewell to another. Morgan Staric left Earthrise in August to move back to her native Ohio. Morgan will continue working on environmental litigation at AltmanNewman in Cincinnati. We wish you the best of luck, Morgan!
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Earthrise Holds EPA's Feet to the Fire on Water Quality
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On behalf of Northwest Environmental Advocates, Earthrise recently filed a case challenging EPA's failure to step up as required by the Clean Water Act to promulgate water quality criteria necessary to protect aquatic species in the State of Washington from toxic pollutants. While the Clean Water Act gives states the first "bite at the apple" in terms of devising their own criteria, when a state fails to develop criteria, or when EPA determines that a state's criteria are inadequate, EPA must promulgate standards for the state. Because water quality criteria form the basis for many regulatory decisions under the Clean Water Act, it is critical that states and EPA get the standards “right.” The lawsuit stems from EPA's denial of NWEA's 2013 Petition asking EPA to update Washington's outdated aquatic life criteria for toxic pollutants. EPA has known for years that the criteria are woefully outdated and that updates are necessary to protect aquatic species, including as orcas and salmon, yet EPA refused to take action to protect these species. Some of the toxic pollutants at issue include aluminum, ammonia, arsenic, copper, cyanide, mercury, nickel, PCBs, selenium, pentachlorophenol, and tributylin. Lia Comerford and Earthrise alumnus Bryan Telegin, at the law firm Bricklin & Newman LLP (Seattle) represent NWEA.
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| | Protecting The Columbia River Slough in Portland
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Earthrise Settles Industrial Stormwater Enforcement Suit in Portland
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On behalf of our client the Northwest Environmental Defense Center (NEDC), Earthrise reached a favorable settlement in a Clean Water Act suit against Portland-based steel manufacturer Supreme Steel, Inc. on September 28, 2020 that will benefit water quality in the Columbia Slough.
Supreme Steel is among the 800+ facilities authorized to discharge stormwater associated with industrial activity under a general NPDES permit issued by Oregon Department of Environmental Quality called the “1200-Z Permit.” Earthrise and NEDC sent Supreme Steel a 60-Day Notice Letter in May of 2020, alleging multiple violations of the 1200-Z Permit and the Clean Water Act at the company’s north Portland facility. NEDC contends that Supreme Steel regularly exceeded the permit’s benchmark concentrations for copper, iron, zinc, and aluminum, and other pollutants; failed to properly implement the pollution control measures required by the permit; and contributed to in-stream violations of State water quality standards, among other violations.
Without admitting liability, Supreme Steel agreed to install new stormwater treatment devices at several of its stormwater drainage basins by the end of the calendar year; engage in additional post-installation stormwater monitoring and reporting; and make a $20,000 payment to fund a Supplemental Environmental Project to be undertaken by Columbia Riverkeeper, in lieu of civil penalties. Earthrise worked alongside NEDC staff attorney and former Earthrise clinical student Jonah Sandford in this matter, and we are grateful to play a role in NEDC’s ongoing stormwater enforcement campaign.
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| Meet our 2020 - 2021 Clinic Class
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Earthrise welcomes our 2020-21 clinical students for this year! We are excited and fortunate to have these great students working with us.
So far our "classroom" classes have covered several topics including the Earthrise docket, transmission line work, Co-Founder Dan Rohlf's Columbia River Dam litigation, and our lawsuit opposing noise pollution in Olympic National Park. Our students have also been able to listen in on two Earthrise oral arguments. All students have been assigned to active cases and will be working on those cases throughout the semester.
Earthrise went remote last March and we plan to continue distance learning through at least the beginning of the spring semester.
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