9th Circuit Victory to Regulate Ballast Water

July 23, 2008 - PEAC won a critical victory in the Ninth Circuit this July on behalf of Northwest Environmental Advocates, The Ocean Conservancy, and San Francisco Baykeeper, forcing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate the discharge of ballast water under the Clean Water Act.

Ten years after PEAC student Brent Foster L'99 first suggested and helped to draft a petition to the EPA asking it to eliminate its exemption of "incidental discharges" from Clean Water Act regulation, the Ninth Circuit has now affirmed that ships arriving in all United States ports will need to obtain discharge permits before dumping their ballast water or be in violation of the law, placing 21 billion gallons of water, for the first time, under federal regulation.

Ballast water, discharged by ships for stabilization, is a major source of invasive species and other pollutants in waters of the United States. As recognized by the Ninth Circuit, invasive species harm native threatened and endangered species and cost our economy $137 billion per year, more than double the annual economic damage of all natural disasters in the U.S.

Melissa Powers argued the case while a staff attorney at PEAC, co-counseling with Deborah Sivas, now at the Stanford Environmental Law Clinic. See the press release and court filings and oral arguments.

Oct. 26, 2008 - Check out this Oregonian article that discusses the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and its refusal to go along with a federal permit proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Photo credit: SERC Marine Invasions Lab

Win for Grizzlies

May 28, 2008 – PEAC won critical protections for grizzly bears in Montana’s Flathead National Forest. In his decision, U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy halted spring snowmobile use on over 52,000 acres to prevent harm to grizzly bears emerging from their winter dens.

In a case filed by on behalf of the Swan View Coalition and Friends of the Wild Swan, the Montana federal court found that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act when it approved a Forest Service proposal to allow snowmobile use to continue into the springtime. The Flathead National Forest, which is adjacent to Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana, is one of the most crucial areas of grizzly bear habitat remaining in the Lower 48 States. Snowmobile use during April and May can harm bears by displacing them from key habitat as they search for food and raise cubs after emerging from their winter dens.

PEAC’s suit also forced the Fish and Wildlife Service to admit that it had not adequately considered the impacts of high road density within the Flathead Forest on threatened bull trout.

Unfortunately, Judge Molloy in the same opinion rejected PEAC’s arguments that high road densities within the Flathead unlawfully harm grizzly bears, excusing the Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service from complying with a plan adopted by the agencies over a decade ago to reduce the number of roads to a level that does not result in harm to grizzlies. Despite this setback, PEAC will continue its work to ensure that federal agencies honor the commitment they made to restore the bears’ habitat.

Read the press release, opinion, and Daily Inter Lake article. You can also check out our Wildlife Wins page.

Cleaning Up Oregon Waters

May 29, 2008 - PEAC negotiated a significant settlement towards keeping toxic pollutants out of Oregon's waters, and ensuring that threatened and endangered species, like salmon and bull trout, are given clean habitat and a chance to recover. Namely, ending our 2007 case on behalf of Northwest Environmental Advocates, the EPA acknowledged its duty to review and address toxic pollutant water quality standards proposed in Oregon. Until our settlement, the EPA's failure to do meant that Oregon continued to operate under less protective standards, or without protections mandated by the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. EPA has now agreed to act on the new standards by January 2009 and fulfill its obligations under federal law.

Apr. 21, 2008 - PEAC assisted Earthjustice in a 9th Circuit win striking down the Bush administration's refusal to give Endangered Species protection to Columbia River coastal cutthroat trout, a unique and beautiful fish once abundant across the Pacific Northwest, now nearing extinction. Read more.

Victory for Bald Eagles

March 10, 2008 - PEAC won a significant victory for the desert nesting bald eagle, increasing Endangered Species Act protections for the species and its habitat. PEAC founder Dan Rohlf led the case.

Read the court opinion, see press, and read the press release.

A River Runs Through

Feb. 29, 2008 -- PEAC reached satisfactory settlement in a case to protect the flow of the nation's 10th largest river, impacting 16,000 total stream miles and 12,000 square miles of watershed. Partnering with Willamette Riverkeeper and NEDC, the suit targeted the Willamette River's 13 federal dams that have operated for the past 15 years in violation of fish conservation measures required by the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The federal agencies in question have agreed to comply with their ESA obligations, resulting in significant protections for endangered salmon. Read more.

Plunging into Hot Water

Jan. 8, 2008 - PEAC achieved a critical interim victory in its case for Northwest Environmental Advocates (NWEA) challenging federal agencies' erroneous approval of Oregon water temperature and inter-gravel dissolved oxygen standards lethal to critically endangered salmon, steelhead and bull trout. The case is part of PEAC's ambitious Oregon Waters initiative.

After rounds of briefing, federal district court Judge Haggerty granted NWEA and PEAC's motion to complete the agencies' administrative records, from which they had tried to exclude thousands of documents from public scrutiny. This significant victory prevents such shielding and enables PEAC to begin briefing the case later this spring.

PEAC staff attorneys Allison LaPlante and Melissa Powers led these motions, with help of PEAC students Jamie Saul, Ellen Trescott, Morgan Wyenn and Liz Crosson who toiled evenings and weekends to help us with the win.

Archived Case Victories

Read about our wins in 2007.

Read about our wins in 2006.