Idaho Power Intervenes, Files To Dismiss Hells Canyon Water Quality Lawsuit
January 9th, 2020
Idaho Power filed a petition in December in Multnomah County that asks the court to dismiss a lawsuit filed in July 2019 by Pacific Rivers and Idaho Rivers United that had challenged the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s water quality certification for the utility’s Hells Canyon Complex of Dams – Brownlee, Oxbow and Hells Canyon dams.
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‘The Time Has Come’: Ninth Circuit Orders EPA To Produce In 30 Days New Temperature Limits For Columbia/Snake Rivers To Protect Salmon/Steelhead
December 20th, 2019
Is it the obligation of the states of Oregon and Washington? Or is the Environmental Protection Agency responsible for completing Total Maximum Daily Load limits for temperature to protect salmon and steelhead in the Snake and Columbia rivers?
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Atlantic Salmon Net Pen Collapse: Cooke Aquaculture Agrees To Pay Wild Fish Conservancy $2.75 Million In Settlement
December 4th, 2019
An aquaculture company in Puget Sound has agreed in a settlement with the Wild Fish Conservancy to pay a $2.75 million penalty for a collapse of one of its net pens near Cypress Island in 2016. More than 260,000 non-native Atlantic salmon escaped due to the collapse.
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Idaho Power To Drop EPA Lawsuit With New Water Temperature Criteria Set For Spawning Fall Chinook Below Hells Canyon Dam
December 4th, 2019
Idaho Power will soon drop a lawsuit it filed in U.S. District Court in Idaho in June 2018 aimed at forcing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to set a two-week water quality standard for fall chinook that spawn downstream of the utility’s Hells Canyon Complex of three dams on the Snake River.
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Lawsuit Challenges Corps/NOAA Approvals Of Columbia River Methanol Refinery; Says Threat To Listed Salmon, Orcas
November 14th, 2019
A lawsuit by environmental and public health groups that challenges approvals for a methanol refinery in Kalama, Wash. by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and NOAA Fisheries was filed this week in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Tacoma.
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Federal Court Orders New Water Quality Plans For Many Of Oregon’s River Basins, Sets Schedules
October 10th, 2019
A federal court has ordered Oregon and federal pollution regulators to replace the existing water quality plans in many of Oregon’s river basins. The court also set schedules for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the federal Environmental Protection Agency to complete the new plans.
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Washington, Oregon Join Multi-State Lawsuit Challenging Trump Administration Rule Changes To Endangered Species Act
September 26th, 2019
Washington and Oregon filed a lawsuit this week challenging Trump Administration rules revising implementation of the Endangered Species Act.
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Who Sets Water Temperature Standards For Columbia/Snake Rivers? Arguments Heard In Ninth Circuit
August 27th, 2019
Opposing sides argued before a three-judge panel at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should complete regulations for temperature, known as Total Maximum Daily Load, for the Snake and Columbia rivers, or whether completing the TMDL is the responsibility of Oregon and Washington.
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Groups Sue Over ESA Rule Changes; Say ‘Arbitrary, Capricious,’ Violate ESA Language
August 22nd, 2019
Seven environmental groups have filed a joint lawsuit challenging recent changes to rules for implementing the Endangered Species Act, declaring the changes amount to “an unprecedented weakening” of protections for endangered and threatened species.