Lawsuit Aims to Protect Northern California
Salmon Habitat
Published on February 18, 2009 in
Salmonid/Wildlife Impacts and
Streams and Wetlands. Colin Sullivan, Greenwire PM DC
February 4, 2009
| There was an earlier suit in the 1990s that forced 17
rivers(?) in California to be listed [(303(d)]as impaired
under the Porter Cologne/Clean Water Act. This is why the
Scott and the Shasta had TMDLs done and resource use
limitations are now being imposed under action plans. Several
other rivers had TMDLs and some have not yet gotten to that
point. The most recent suit, as I understand it, is to make
sure that TMDLs and Implementing Action Plans are imposed on
the remaining rivers.
http://www.krisweb.com/policy/tmdl.htm
"In 1996, the Coast
Action Group and the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund launched a
suit against the U.S. EPA and the SWRCB to force action on
these impaired water bodies. The agencies settled out of court
and agreed to a schedule for clean up and abatement of the
identified water quality problems. The TMDL plan has been
formulated for the Garcia River (U.S. EPA, 1998) and other
basins (Kramer et al., 2001; Matthews Assoc., 1999; 2000a;
2000b, 2001a; 2001b) and a number more are scheduled to follow
(
TMDL Schedule). The Ninth Circuit Federal Court recently
upheld the TMDL process in the Garcia River Basin (
Prosolino vs. Nastri, 2002), and land owners will now
develop management plans in order to come into compliance over
the span of a decade".
California Regional Water Quality Control Board (CRWQCB). 2002a.
2002 Clean Water Act Section 303(d) list of
water quality limited segments. CRWQCB, San Francisco Bay
Region. San Francisco, CA. 199 pp. [711k] |
http://www.ncriverwatch.org/wordpress/2009/02/18/lawsuit-aims-to-protect-northern-california-salmon-habitat/
Lawsuit Aims to Protect Northern
California Salmon Habitat
Published on February 18, 2009 in
Salmonid/Wildlife Impacts and
Streams and Wetlands.
Colin Sullivan, Greenwire PM DC February 4, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO Environmental and fishing groups sued
California today for allegedly ignoring laws aimed at guaranteeing
clean water along the North Coast for endangered chinook salmon,
coho salmon and steelhead trout.
The groups led by the Sierra Club, Earthjustice and the Pacific
Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations filed suit in state
Superior Court, saying state officials had failed to craft plans
that protect water quality and provide habitat for the fish.
“Without such plans, water quality in North Coast rivers and
streams will not meet the standards that the state is obligated to
achieve,” Earthjustice attorney George Torgun said.
The suit challenges the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control
Board’s application of the federal Clean Water Act’s Total Maximum
Daily Load program related to removal of sediment in spawning
streams and rivers. The groups say the TMDL program “has suffered
from a history of inaction.”
Declining river conditions in the region, caused largely by
development around the waterways, have resulted in fishing
restrictions over the last few years, to include a complete
shutdown of the salmon fishing season last year. The groups say
the state board has failed to deal with its part of the problem
namely, debris discharge.
The agency, the suit charges, has not maintained a list of rivers
and streams that do not meet the water quality standards. Nor has
it set pollution limits for these sources, the groups claim.
A North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board spokesman
refused to comment on the lawsuit, but he did cite the agency’s
“sediment TMDL implementation policy,” which was passed in 2004.
He said the board is working under this program to clean the
rivers and streams and to ensure cold water for the fish.
http://www.earthjustice.org/our_work/cases/2009/protecting-north-coast-rivers.html
Over the past few decades, human activities such as dam
construction, water diversions, agriculture, logging, mining, and
grazing have left many waterways in the North Coast region of
California impaired by nutrients, sediment, high temperatures, and
low dissolved oxygen levels. These conditions have resulted in
serious environmental impacts, especially for native salmon and
trout. In 1997, following an Earthjustice lawsuit, a coalition of
public interest groups entered into an agreement with the EPA to
establish Total Maximum Daily Loads ("TMDLs") for polluted rivers
along the North Coast of California. However, it is the
responsibility of the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control
Board to develop plans for meeting the limits set by the TMDLs
developed by the EPA. The Regional Board's failure to develop
those plans means that these vulnerable waterways continue to
suffer from poor water quality.
On behalf of a coalition of fishing groups and environmental
organizations, Earthjustice is suing the Regional Board over its
failure to develop implementation plans to protect the rivers of
the North Coast. http://www.earthjustice.org/library/legal_docs/northcoast-tmdl.pdf
Environmental Protection Information Center
Friends of the Eel River
Friends of the Navarro River
Northcoast Environmental Center
Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations
Sierra Club
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