PEAC won a crucial case targeting Oregon state agencies’s failure to enforce compliance by the Blue Heron Paper Company with state water quality standards for thirty years.
Specifically, PEAC won a ruling declaring DEQ’s use of a “compliance schedule” in the permit (extending water quality standards long past the Clean Water Act’s 1977 compliance requirement!) invalid. Setting another important precedent, the court declared DEQ in violation of the Act’s “anti-backsliding” prohibition, pursuant to which it is unlawful for any permit to contain less stringent terms than the previous permit required. In this case, the previous permit required Blue Heron to meet the turbidity water quality standard by April, 2006, and the new permit gave Blue Heron an additional 5 years before it needed to comply with the standard.
Significantly, this victory prohibits Oregon from unilaterally suspending the requirements of the Clean Water Act whenever it or the regulatory community chooses.
The case was led by formidable Melissa Powers with PEAC students Natasha Bellis and Erin Smith.
Read the winning opinion (pdf).
