CLF argues the Army Corps of Engineers didn’t do its due diligence before issuing the permit for that project – which, the nonprofit says, will irreparably damage the already degraded estuary.
“The problem here is that we’re putting the cart before the horse a little bit … before we have the results back from investigations that are going on into what is the safest way to treat it,” she said.
The new federal suit alleges construction activity will suspend 1,500 tons of sediment into the bay, causing high suspended-solid concentrations, will release pathogens, contaminants and nutrients into the estuary. It also disputes claims there would be no degradation of the waterway, as well as natural and commercial oyster beds in the area.
Ninety-five surviving females. Twenty-eight whales killed versus 12 calves born. It’s the right time – the only time – to save the right whale. We need to do the right thing. We need to do it now. And we need to do it together.
A federal court judge will soon decide whether a lawsuit should go forward that the Sierra Club and Conservation Law Foundation has filed over alleged violations of water-discharge permits for the Merrimack Station coal-burning power plant in Bow.
“By the EPA’s own estimates, the new rule will result in the deaths of thousands of Americans,” Conservation Law Foundation attorney James Crowley said in a statement. “The Trump administration’s pathetic rule is nothing more than a lifeline for dying coal plants, and we will continue to fight it.”
“Iconic species like the North Atlantic right whale are part of our heritage and deserve all possible protections in the face of the many threats to their continued existence,” said Erica Fuller, a senior staff attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston. “Any attempt to gut one of the public’s most revered statutes, especially in the face of the most recent UN report, demonstrates a lack of respect for both past and future generations.”
“This proposed rule change would hobble the most important tool that states have to protect significant waters, from prized trout streams to essential drinking water sources,” said Bradley Campbell, president of the Conservation Law Foundation.
“For many years we’ve been seeing a sort of downward spiral in the state of the health of this remarkable network of rivers and bays that we live near. The bottom line is that we still have a lot that’s getting into our water that’s making it hard for this to be a robust and healthy ecosystem.”
Chris Kilian, vice president of strategic litigation at CLF, said in a statement that the terminal is “poised for disaster.” “It will take only one significant storm to inundate this facility and release toxic chemicals into surrounding waters and neighborhoods,” he said
