At the end of September, Earthrise, on behalf of our client San Francisco Baykeeper, filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s arbitrary decision that Cargill's Redwood City Salt Ponds are not protected by the Clean Water Act. San Francisco Bay and its thousands of acres of wetlands are a critical ecological resource and a safeguard against rising sea levels—but only if they are protected from development. We’ve taken the Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to court again because its decision refusing to extend Clean Water Act protections to this ecologically significant resource sets a dangerous precedent for the health of the Bay, as well as for Clean Water Act protections across the country.

“In an era defined by widespread climate disruption and increasing water scarcity, the future of the Colorado River and its ability to provide for abundant wildlife, remarkable scenery, and shared water resources, depends upon the sound, scientifically driven management of the River and its various impoundments, including Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon Dam.”

So reads the first paragraph of the complaint filed by Earthrise attorneys Tom Buchele and Jamie Saul on October 1, 2019 against the U.S. Department of the Interior in a lawsuit challenging the Long-Term Experimental Management Plan (LTEMP) and associated environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Glen Canyon Dam. The suit, filed on behalf of Save the Colorado, Living Rivers, and the Center for Biological Diversity, seeks to force the Interior Department to reassess the impacts the dam has on the diverse ecosystem downstream, including the foreseeable future impacts of continued dam operations in the new age of climate change.