{"id":23276,"date":"2022-08-04T22:17:47","date_gmt":"2022-08-04T22:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/?p=23276"},"modified":"2022-08-04T22:30:46","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T22:30:46","slug":"court-victory-for-clean-water-and-state-regulators-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/es\/court-victory-for-clean-water-and-state-regulators-in-california\/","title":{"rendered":"Victoria judicial para agua limpia y reguladores estatales en California"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overruled<\/a> the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), re-establishing California\u2019s right to protect water quality in the Yuba, Bear, and Merced River Watersheds for the next 40 years.<\/p>\n

One of FERC\u2019s primary duties is licensing and inspecting private, municipal, and state hydroelectric projects. As part of this licensing process, Section 401 of the federal Clean Water Act requires license applicants for hydroelectric projects to request that the state and\/or Tribes with certification responsibilities certify that new licenses will protect water quality as required by state law.<\/p>\n

The Clean Water Act gives states a year to act on certification. In the three cases, the applicants for certification withdrew their requests before one year expired. FERC had found that the California State Water Resources Control Board\u2019s (Board\u2019s) acceptance of the applicants\u2019 withdrawals, including perfunctory emails and comments outlining options, showed that the state was complicit in circumventing the one-year rule. Essentially, FERC, relying on a 2019 case called Hoopa Valley Tribe v. FERC<\/em>, had held that the Board waived its chance to certify.<\/p>\n

The court disagreed and reversed FERC\u2019s orders, finding there was no substantial evidence that the Board had acted to skirt the one-year rule. Instead, the court found: \u201ca state\u2019s mere acceptance of a withdrawal-and-resubmission is not enough to show that the state engaged in a coordinated scheme to avoid its statutory deadline for action. Accordingly, FERC\u2019s orders cannot stand.\u201d<\/p>\n

FERC had also said that the applicants\u2019 failure to complete environmental review as required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) didn\u2019t matter. Again, the court disagreed with this assertion, stating, \u201cIn short, the records in all three orders under review demonstrate that the Project Applicants chose to withdraw and resubmit their certification requests because they had not complied with California\u2019s CEQA regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court was clear on the stakes of the decision, noting: \u201c[I]f a state waives its authority to impose conditions on a hydroelectric project\u2019s federal license through Section 401\u2019s certification procedure, that project may be noncompliant with prevailing state water quality standards for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Yuba River Citizens League, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Friends of the River, and Sierra Club and its Mother Lode and Tehipite chapters were environmental litigants in the case, along with the California Attorney General\u2019s Office on behalf of the Board. Water Power Law Group and the Western Environmental Law Center represented the environmental litigants.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s reversal of FERC\u2019s string of illogical rulings errantly waiving states\u2019 rights to enforce their environmental laws under the Clean Water Act feels like the end of an era of abuse,\u201d said Andrew Hawley, senior attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center.<\/strong> \u201cBefore today, people unconcerned with protecting clean water were positioned to weaponize a decision called\u00a0Hoopa Valley Tribe v. FERC <\/em>to severely constrain well-established state and Tribal rights guaranteed by the Clean Water Act. Today, we closed the\u00a0Hoopa Valley<\/em>\u00a0Clean Water Act loophole.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe South Yuba River Citizens League and our colleagues have been working in FERC relicensing on the Yuba River for 15 years,\u201d said Melinda Booth, executive director of the South Yuba River Citizens League<\/strong>. \u201cIt is a huge relief that the state\u2019s protection will be in force in the decades to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the Hoopa Valley Tribe<\/em> ruling in 2019, some hydropower operators have been looking for ways to skate from the Clean Water Act,\u201d said Chris Shutes, FERC projects director for the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance<\/strong>. \u201cToday\u2019s ruling restores process discipline and affirms the Act\u2019s primary role to protect water quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court got it right,\u201d said Ron Stork, senior policy advocate with Friends of the River<\/strong>. \u201cNo applicant for a FERC license should be able to not follow the rules and then turn around and blame the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision is local, but it could have national significance,\u201d said Rob Burness, Vice Chair, Conservation Committee, Sierra Club Mother Lode Chapter.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Contacts:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Andrew Hawley, Western Environmental Law Center, 206-487-7250, hawley@westernlaw.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Melinda Booth, South Yuba River Citizens League, 650-207-0495, melinda@yubariver.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Chris Shutes, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, 510-421-2405, blancapaloma@msn.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Ron Stork, Friends of the River, 916-442-3155 x220, rstork@friendsoftheriver.org<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overruled the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), re-establishing California\u2019s right to protect water quality in the Yuba, Bear, and Merced River Watersheds for the next 40 years. One of FERC\u2019s primary duties is licensing and inspecting private, municipal, and state […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[245],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-release"],"yoast_head":"\nCourt victory for clean water and state regulators in California - Western Environmental Law Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/es\/court-victory-for-clean-water-and-state-regulators-in-california\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Court victory for clean water and state regulators in California - Western Environmental Law Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today, a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overruled the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), re-establishing California\u2019s right to protect water quality in the Yuba, Bear, and Merced River Watersheds for the next 40 years. 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