The wheels of justice continue to turn and Earthrise staff and students are hard at work litigating to protect habitats across the county. As you all have undoubtedly experienced, changes in how “business is done” during a pandemic can make things a little more challenging. All these changes haven’t stopped our work – in fact we are busier than ever! Below is a snap shot of some of our work this spring:
Protecting Crucial Wetland Habitat in California – We continue our litigation on behalf of San Francisco Baykeeper to force the federal government to extend Clean Water Act protections to the Redwood City Salt Ponds in San Francisco Bay. This site is one of the last remaining undeveloped areas along the Bay’s shorelines and provides important habitat in the Bay. We filed our final summary judgment reply brief this week, and we expect a decision by the end of the year.
Opposing a Damaging Energy Transmission Line Project in New England: We continue assisting local groups in Maine, including the Sierra Club, in their opposition to a transmission line that would move electrical power from large, environmentally destructive hydropower dams in Northern Canada into New England.
Challenging Dam Management in Arizona: Work continues on our lawsuit against the Interior Department for its failure to adequately assess the impacts of the Glen Canyon Dam on the downstream ecosystems of the Colorado River in light of the new age of climate change.
Forcing the Federal Government To Respond To Citizen Information Requests Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA): We continue to fight for transparency with government agencies—including the U.S. Navy, Bureau of Land Management, and Forest Service—for their continued withholding of documents that are critical to public understanding of federal agency actions. Our FOIA work this spring, on behalf of the National Parks Conservation Association, seeks to compel the release of public documents related to the Navy’s Growler plane flights over the Olympic National Park, which is home to the quietest square inch in the lower 48. Another case, on behalf of Cascade Forest Conservancy, deals with documents pertaining to proposed mineral prospecting near Mount St. Helens.
Opposing Environmentally Destructive Logging Projects on National Forests: Our nationwide forest protection work includes fighting a recently proposed logging project in California’s Inyo National Forest. We and our clients Earth Island Institute and the Center for Biological Diversity are working to protect large trees in this forest and the species that call this area home, including the black-backed woodpecker and Pacific marten.
Continuing the Fight Against CAFO Pollution in Maryland: This spring we filed an appeal to the D.C. Circuit, on behalf of Food & Water Watch, to curb pollution from a poultry concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) located in Maryland’s eastern shore. This area is already inundated with CAFO facilities, which are polluting local waterways as well as the Chesapeake Bay.
Compelling the State of Washington and EPA to Comply with the Clean Water Act: Along with our co-counsel at Western Environmental Law Center, we are litigating claims against EPA to force its oversight of Washington’s total maximum daily load (TMDL) program. Even though the State has thousands of polluted and impaired waters, it only manages to create TMDL clean-up plans at a rate of a handful (or less) per year. Our suit aims to speed that up dramatically, as the Clean Water Act requires.
Protecting the Rogue River from the City of Medford’s Nutrient Pollution: In conjunction with a team of aquatic biologists and our client Northwest Environmental Advocates, Earthrise is working to implement an interim settlement in our Clean Water Act lawsuit targeting the City of Medford’s Regional Water Reclamation Facility. On May 15 we completed a comprehensive remedy report explaining why aggressive nutrient limits are needed. We hope to negotiate a final settlement with Medford by the end of the summer.
