PEAC Victories | 2007

In 2007, PEAC reaped the rewards of years of hard work to protect the environment. The following paragraphs summarize some of our most important victories from last year.

Blue Heron Paper Company Forced to Comply

Dec. 19, 2007 -- 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 five 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 staff attorney Melissa Powers with PEAC students Natasha Bellis and Erin Smith.

Shelving Coal

Nov. 27, 2007 -- PEAC helped to halt the building of a coal-fired power plant proposed for Kalama, Washington on the Columbia River. This important victory for the region resulted from a collaboration with Columbia Riverkeeper, the Rosemere Neighborhood Association, and the Willapa Hills Audobon Society.

Read the decision of the Energy Facility Siting Council (EFSEC) to table the coal-burning plant because the applicant violated Washington's new law requiring a carbon sequestration plan for all new coal-fired power plants. EFSEC's decision highlights the public's commitment to addressing global climate change. PEAC Staff Attorneys Aubrey Baldwin and Allison LaPlante worked with Lewis & Clark law student Naeem Nulwala on the case.

See CRK press release and the neighborhood report.

Thwarting Larry Craig

Why would the U.S. Senator from Idaho vie to prevent the quiet collection of data on migrating salmon?

Read about the victory of a case that no one else would take on: PEAC's Fish Passage Center victory, profiled in the September 2007 issue of Portland Monthly.

Saving 1,000 Acres and Setting a National Standard

July 2007 -- Five years and two appeals after the conflagration of 12,000 acres of the Elk Creek watershed in the Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion of southwestern Oregon and northwestern California, PEAC halted the stripping of snags from 961 acres of federally-protected land. In the process, PEAC set a first-of-its-kind national standard for what kind of logging is allowed after fires in late-successional reserves. This is a major step in the protection of endangered species such as the northern spotted owl and other cavity-nesting species, as well as for the survival of delicate old-growth ecosystems. Susan Jane Brown and Stephanie Parent led PEAC in the win.

Read ONRC v. Brong (pdf)

Save for Steelhead, Finding Bull

Apr. 2007 -- PEAC won over the Oregon district court, convincing it to hold the federal government responsible for considering the degredation of steelhead habitats by poor grazing practice in managing the mid-Columbia River. The court found the federal biological opinions on steelhead and bull trout unlawful, improper and vague under the Endangered Species Act, forcing the government to re-examine species impact before continuing its activities. PEAC co-counseled with alum Kristin Ruether, staff attorney at Oregon Natural Desert Association.

Read the winning opinion at ONDA v. Lohn (pdf).

Smack-Down for Salmon

Apr. 2007 -- PEAC and Earthjustice won a precedent-setting Ninth Circuit appeal rejecting the federal government's plan for operating federal dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. Two years after the district court issued a "complete legal smack-down" of the plan, so reported by the Oregonian, the Ninth Circuit found the government's justification in harming salmon and steelhead "little more than analytical slight of hand...." In significant forward-looking language, the opinion establishes that under the Endangered Species Act, federal agencies must consider the impact of dams on imperilled species' chances for recovery.

Read the winning opinion NWF v. NWFS Appeal (pdf)

PEAC Halts Owl Rampage

Feb. 2007 - PEAC and Earthjustice won a major court victory halting the unhindered, unjustified killing and injuring of northern spotted owls during logging activities by federal forest managers. Henceforth, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must quantify, rationalize, and develop clear thresholds of allowable harm to owls and, by analogy, all threatened species protected by the Endangered Species Act. This Ninth Circuit victory was led by Stephanie Parent with Kristen Boyles at Earthjustice.

Read the precedent-setting opinion ONRC v. Allen (PDF)

Victory for Fish and Science

On January 23, 2007, the Ninth Circuit ruled in favor of fish, science and sound administration of government. The court held that BPA's "slavish" reliance on committee report language as binding legislation is unlawful, and that its decision was arbitrary and capricious because there was no rational basis for it. The court ordered BPA to continue to fund the Center "unless and until it has established a proper basis for displacing the FPC." PEAC filed a petition for review of BPA's decision to defund and transfer the work of the Fish Passage Center to other entities on behalf of Northwest Environmental Defense Center, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and Northwest Sportfishers' Industry Association. The Center's experts provide analysis of fish runs and river operations to protect and enhance salmon, steelhead, bull trout and other fish moving through the Columbia and lower Snake rivers. The Fish Passage Center plays a critical role in monitoring whether native fish stocks are able to traverse a series of dams to reach their spawning grounds.

Read the court's opinion (PDF).