On behalf of Wild Fish Conservancy, on Monday, November 13th, Earthrise filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Washington against Cooke Aquaculture for Clean Water Act violations related to the near-complete structural failure of its Atlantic salmon farming facility in Deepwater Bay off of Cypress Island in late August.
On behalf of 10 watershed protection groups in Massachusetts, last Friday, September 22nd, Earthrise filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Massachusetts challenging the Trump EPA’s decision to stay the implementation of the state’s new municipal stormwater permit.
On February 28, 2017, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) instructing the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers (the “Agencies”) to begin a rulemaking to rescind or revise the Clean Water Rule, a 2015 regulation that defined the phrase “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) as used in the federal Clean Water Act (CWA), thereby identifying those waters protected by the Act’s restrictions on pollutant discharges.
Last week, Earthrise brought the Green River in Illinois one step closer to being restored after decades of concrete dumping along its banks by an adjacent landowner and owner of a demolition and trucking company. In federal court in Rock Island, Illinois, on behalf of Quad Cities Waterkeeper and Prairie Rivers Network, Earthrise attorneys Kevin Cassidy and Lia Comerford presented evidence about the harm the unauthorized concrete dumping has caused to their clients and the Green River and urged federal judge Sara Darrow to order and oversee a comprehensive restoration plan.
The Center for Biological Diversity and Northwest Environmental Advocates notified the Environmental Protection Agency last week that they plan to sue the agency for failing to consider the needs of endangered salmon and sturgeon when approving state water-quality standards in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Connecticut.
In a precedent setting case, United States District Judge Sara Darrow, of the Central District of Illinois, ruled on September 29 that maintenance of an otherwise unpermitted levee is not exempt from the federal Clean Water Act.
“A recent flurry of suits by West Coast cities—seeking to hold Monsanto liable for allegedly polluting public waterways with PCBs it made decades ago—represents an intersection of hazardous waste and product liability law that could have a far-reaching impact on industrial product manufacturers, attorneys and scholars tell Bloomberg BNA.” Professor Craig Johnston spoke to Bloomberg BNA on what this could mean for hazardous waste law.
On behalf of Northwest Environmental Advocates (NWEA), Earthrise has successfully resolved a lawsuit compelling the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to promulgate new water quality standards for the State of Oregon.
Earthrise protects another river from polluters! Yesterday, the District of Massachusetts federal court approved a settlement that will require Chang Farms to comply with its Clean Water Act permit and cease its illegal discharges into the Connecticut River.
2/12/14 - A press release issued today reports on a letter sent on behalf of Earthrise’s clients, charging the Arkansas DEQ with monitoring water for hog waste contamination in the wrong fields.
9/13/13 - KATV (Little Rock) reports on a fundraiser for the lawsuit brought by environmental groups against a hog farm near the Buffalo National River in Arkansas. Earthrise is of counsel on the suit.
8/7/13 - A coalition of conservation and citizen groups, represented by Earthjustice, Earthrise Law Center, and local attorney Hank Bates, filed suit in federal court yesterday to challenge approval of a hog farm near the Buffalo National River in Arkansas.
5/8/13 - Earthrise is representing a coalition of environmental groups opposing a hog farm that could threaten the watershed of the Buffalo National River in northwest Arkansas.
4/3/13 - Earthrise Clinical Director, Craig Johnston, is quoted in The Oregonian in an article about Clean Water Act violations by coal trains traveling through the Columbia River Gorge.
3/28/13 - Earthrise clients will petition the New Jersey Supreme Court for review of an adverse decision by the Appellate Court regarding their challenge to New Jersey’s General Permit for Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs).
2/14/13 - Read our winter newsletter, highlighting Earthrise students’ roles in Supreme Court briefing and in an herbicide case in eastern Oregon, plus more.
11/21/12 - Last Thursday, Earthrise Law Center won a ruling from the bench for its client, Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project, to partially vacate a US Forest Service decision that would greatly increase the use of herbicides in Oregon’s Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.
10/29/12 - Earthrise, on behalf of its client the Center for Coalfield Justice, served notice today of CCJ’s intent to sue Alpha Natural Resources and Emerald Mine Resources for Clean Water Act permit violations in western Pennsylvania.
7/5/12 - A federal judge ruled in favor of PEAC and its client League of Wilderness Defenders/Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project, halting the spraying of herbicides in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.
6/25/12 - Read about PEAC’s case in New Jersey, using the Clean Water Act to regulate sewage pollution and restore the New York-New Jersey Harbor and the rivers that flow into it.
5/31/12 - Read up on the latest at Earthrise (formerly PEAC), including the Oregon temperature water quality standards victory, clinical experiences of our students, and collaboration with India.
3/8/12 - PEAC attorney Tom Buchele is quoted in this article on the Columbia River Crossing from ClimateWire: “How a bridge divides the environmentally conscious in Portland, Ore.”
2/6/12 - A proposed downsizing of the Columbia River Crossing project is not necessarily good for the environment and should be subject to environmental review and public comment.
On behalf of Northwest Environmental Advocates (NWEA), on May 16, 2018 Earthrise Law Center filed a lawsuit against the City of Medford, Oregon over its Clean Water Act violations that have caused harmful changes to the aquatic ecosystem in the Rogue River, a prized steelhead fishery in Southern Oregon.
On October 11 the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in National Association of Manufacturers v. Department of Defense, a group of consolidated cases in which various environmental and industry petitioners are challenging EPA’s “Clean Water Rule.”
Earthrise filed a petition today on behalf of the Northwest Environmental Advocates (NWEA), the Northwest Environmental Defense Center (NEDC), and fish advocate, Bill Bakke, seeking to force Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to address the enormous backlog of administratively continued Clean Water Act permits, known as “Zombie Permits.”
Today Earthrise filed a lawsuit on behalf of Oregon-based Northwest Environmental Advocates (NWEA) challenging EPA’s failure to respond to an 88-page petition submitted to the federal agency over three years ago, in October 2013. The petition seeks EPA’s action to update Washington’s water quality standards for toxics, primarily for the protection of aquatic life, such as salmon and steelhead.
Longtime partners, Northwest Environmental Advocates (NWEA), represented by Earthrise attorney Allison LaPlante and Seattle attorney Paul Kampmeier of Kampmeier & Knutsen filed a lawsuit today against the EPA and NOAA for their failure to force Washington State to control polluted runoff in the state’s coastal watersheds, including Puget Sound. The lawsuit aims to force the agencies to impose Congressionally-mandated funding cuts on the State of Washington for failing to comply with a law that requires the state to protect coastal water quality.
Earthrise, along with co-counsel, Bryan Telegin, received a ruling from a federal magistrate judge this week recommending that our client, Northwest Environmental Advocates (NWEA), should win its suit challenging Oregon’s plans to clean up temperature and mercury pollution in Oregon’s rivers.
Earthrise attorney Allison LaPlante, representing Northwest Environmental Advocates (NWEA) is threatening the EPA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with a lawsuit in 60 days over their failure to protected coasted threatened and endangered species in Washington State.
Dan Rohlf, Professor of Law and a Founding Member of Earthrise Law Center at Lewis & Clark Law School, discusses the changes FEMA must make to its flood insurance program to protect riparian areas crucial for wildlife – especially salmon.
In a federal court-signed order today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agreed to retract its 2010 approval of Idaho’s water quality standard for arsenic.
Today, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Vessel General Permit (VGP) that governs the discharge of 21 billion gallons annually of ballast water—laden with invasive species—to the nation’s waters.
Earthrise working to stop long-running pollution of the Connecticut River in Massachusetts, sending notice of intent to sue letter to Chang Farms in Whately, Massachusetts.
Earthrise’s client, the National Park Conservation Association, has put out a great new video about the threat of waste from a hog farm near the Buffalo River and the reasons we are working with our clients in the fight to protect this national treasure. Please take a couple minutes to check it out!
Earthrise Director Craig Johnston recently spoke on Oregon Public Broadcasting about the historic victory against the Army Corps of Engineers regarding oil pollution from Pacific Northwest dams.
7/24/13 - In an opinion released Monday, a federal judge in Portland ruled in favor of the defendants in a case that had all the earmarks of a classic SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation).
6/28/13 - The Mountaineers Foundation has awarded Earthrise Law Center a Community Grant for the second year in a row. The $3,000 grant will support the Oregon Waters initiative.
4/11/13 - Yesterday a federal judge in Portland signed an agreement Earthrise negotiated on behalf of its client, NWEA, requiring more rigorous EPA oversight of Oregon’s setting of water temperature standards for the state’s rivers and streams.
3/28/13 - Earthrise’s client, the Northwest Environmental Defense Center, issued a press release regarding yesterday’s important court decision on in-stream gravel mining.
3/22/13 - On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its long-awaited ruling in Decker v. NEDC. Earthrise Clinical Professor Allison LaPlante, together with third year students Lia Comerford and Meredith Price, submitted an amicus brief to the Court on jurisdictional issues.
1/4/13 - Earthrise Law Center faculty and students gave their time and expertise to defend the Clean Water Act by writing amicus briefs related to two significant environmental cases in the Supreme Court’s 2012-2013 term.
An appellate ruling last week rejected the NJDEP’s effort to short circuit a law suit brought by Earthrise Law Center’s clients. The suit seeks to revoke the NJDEP’s illegal Combined Sewer System permit.
7/17/12 - Liv Brumfield, one of Earthrise’s five summer externs, writes about her experience supporting a team of attorneys in a week-long Clean Water Act trial in Wisconsin district court.
7/5/12 - PEAC filed a complaint Monday against the Columbia River Crossing, on behalf of three conservation groups alleging inadequate study of health and environmental impacts.
4/30/12 - The LA Timesreports that environmental groups represented by PEAC have filed a 60-day notice letter asking Magic Mountain theme park in Valencia, CA, to stop discharging pollutants into the Santa Clara River.
3/19/12 - Two articles published in The Oregonian on Saturday featured PEAC: one on the ESCO Good Neighbor Agreement and the other on the Columbia River Crossing.
2/29/12 - PEAC attorneys Allison LaPlante, Dan Mensher, and Dan Rohlf helped their clients win a ruling on temperature standards that will help protect water quality, salmon, bull trout, and steelhead.
1/25/12 - A state dredging permit, approved last month, didn’t adequately consider the Port of Coos Bay’s plans for two new export slips, environmental groups say.
A federal judge in Oregon ruled that the Obama administration’s attempt to make federal hydroelectric dams in the Northwest safer for protected salmon violates the Endangered Species Act.
For a compelling glimpse into PEAC’s work to protect the Willamette watershed, read Steve Duin’s astute column on the Oregon DEQ’s failure to properly regulate Grabhorn Landfill.
On behalf of NEDC and Columbia Riverkeeper, PEAC sent a 60-day notice of its intent to file suit against Diversified Marine for violations of the CWA and RCRA.