Water
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Cleaning up and cooling down waterways
Water is essential to the survival of life, elemental in the maintenance of stable ecosystems, and itself a habitat for aquatic species. Water quality is a cornerstone environmental issue, and Earthrise Law Center is committed to its protection and improvement.
Earthrise works to clean up and cool down waterways on a regional and national scale by strengthening and ensuring enforcement of existing laws like the federal Clean Water Act. Earthrise has been working to curb vessel pollution, including the discharge of invasive species that travel from port to port in ships’ ballast tanks. Earthrise is using advocacy and litigation to strengthen the water quality standards, or goals, for waterbodies, including those waterbodies that are the home to the Pacific Northwest’s iconic and imperiled cold-water species such as salmon and bull trout. Earthrise has brought numerous legal actions against industrial facilities that discharge pollutants into waterways. These cases are preventing the addition of mercury, lead, and other toxic pollutants into waters in which people regularly swim and recreate. Earthrise has recently begun taking its enforcement work beyond the Northwest, by tackling water pollution problems in Wisconsin, New Jersey, Arkansas, and the Chesapeake Bay.
Earthrise secures improvements to industrial stormwater discharge permits
Thank You Rose Foundation
Wild Fish Conservancy Sues Cooke Aquaculture Over CWA Violations Related to its Atlantic Salmon Farming Facilities in Puget Sound
Earthrise files brief with US Supreme Court over WOTUS
Court Ousts Oregon’s Water Pollution Clean-up Plans, Too Hot for Salmon
Yesterday, Earthrise and its co-counsel, on behalf of Northwest Environmental Advocates (NWEA), won a challenge against Oregon’s illegal water temperature standards, which change goals from cold temperatures to hot—and sometimes even lethal for salmon and other imperiled cold-water species.
Earthrise Files Petition to Address “Zombie Permits”
Trump Instructs EPA to “Review and Rescind or Revise” Waters of the U.S. Rule
Lawsuit Seeks New Toxic Standards for Washington State Waters
Green River Trial Final Stages- Earthrise Seeks Cleanup
Washington’s Refusal to Operate under Coastal Protection Law Could Lose the State Federal Funding
EPA on Notice for Violations of the Endangered Species Act in New England
Magistrate Recommends NWEA Wins Suit Over Oregon Water Temperature Standards
Earthrise Victory in Illinois: Concrete Dumping Violated Clean Water Act
Earthrise and NWEA Threaten Federal Lawsuit to Protect Puget Sound from Polluted Runoff
Public Nuisance PCB Suits Against Monsanto Could Have Far-Reaching Impact
“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.
Earthrise Law Center is located in Wood Hall on the Law Campus.
email earthrise@lclark.edu
voice (503) 768-6736
fax (503) 768-6642
Allison LaPlante and Tom Buchele
Earthrise Law Center
Lewis & Clark Law School
10101 S. Terwilliger Boulevard MSC
Portland OR 97219