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Regions
The most populous state in the union continues to grow, making efforts to clean up the air and water more difficult as cars overcrowd the highways and sprawl creeps across fields and orchards. In the San Joaquin Valley, agriculture, oil fields, and vehicles have made the area the asthma capital of the country as various organizations prod government agencies to do more.
California prides itself on being the nation’s breadbasket, the supplier of vegetables, fruits, nuts, and other agricultural products to the country and the world. But the San Joaquin Valley, where many of these crops are grown, has the worst air pollution of any comparable area in the country. Western Press Secretary Brian Smith recounts how a unique coalition came together to fight for cleaner air.
Learn more about the Central Valley struggle
Federal efforts to weaken regulations governing logging on steep, landslide-prone hillsides successfully rebuffed
A judge has tossed out a biological opinion where political considerations prevailed over science.
To justify an increase in logging on steep slopes in the Northwest, the Forest Service ignored advice from leading scientists including some from the Fish and Wildlife Service.
An attempt by irrigators to overturn minimum flows for salmon is rejected.
The primary zone of the California Delta is truly the heart of the state. This western watershed for the Sierra Nevada mountains is home to a multitude of wildlife and family farms, it also provides drinking water to millions of Californians. A recent proposal to allow 162 units of housing within this zone at Clarksburg was successfully challenged by Earthjustice and a coalition of local residents.
Federal judge rules that habitat plan doesn't go far enough
New management plan must be developed
Placing energy plants across the border with Mexico, to serve the US electricity grid, does not waive U.S. clean air requirements
California prides itself on being the nation’s breadbasket, the supplier of vegetables, fruits, nuts, and other agricultural products to the country and the world. But the San Joaquin Valley, where many of these crops are grown, has the worst air pollution of any comparable area in the country. Western Press Secretary Brian Smith recounts how a unique coalition came together to fight for cleaner air.
Conservation easement and future habitat protection will protect vanishing species
EPA will have to reclassify the air pollution status of the Imperial Valley as a result of Supreme Court decision.
Earthjustice succesfully defended the largest no-fishing zone on the West Coast.
San Francisco Ruling Could Apply Everywhere
Alameda County (California) growth control measure upheld in court--for a second time--against a challenge from developers.
A dwindling population of the Santa Ana sucker will gain critical habitat
Earthjustice succeeds in convincing the Methanex tribunal that it had the authority to allow us to make written submissions in the case, opening the door to public participation.
Rare tie vote sustains fines against California farmer who wrecked vernal pools without a permit
Fish and Wildlife to study impacts on natural oasis
Environmentalists Say Process Kills Fish Larvae
Courts rule in favor of preserving, for now, more than 400,000 acres of San Francisco East Bay grasslands
Tentative agreement is reached to clean up polluted air in California's San Joaquin Valley.
Threatened with lawsuits from Earthjustice and clean-air advocates, in October 2001, the EPA redesignated the San Joaquin Valley a "severe" ozone region, a change in status from "serious" that reflects the smog problem as well as the lack of progress in solving it.
The national monument established by President Clinton to protect the last pockets of unprotected giant sequoias on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada has withstood a challenge.
In 2001, Earthjustice's Environmental Law Clinic at Stanford compelled the National Marine Fisheries Service to protect endangered sea turtles, whales, and dolphins from the effects of gillnet fisheries off the California Coast.
In March 2001, the EPA announced that it will require the Bay Area air quality agencies to develop a more aggressive clean air plan to comply with National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone.
Some lawsuits fail in court but still accomplish their overall objective. One such case rescued the Sacramento River winter-run king salmon. Mike Sherwood, the lead attorney on the case, tells the story.
In the mid-1980s, the Army gave the Postal Service permission to build a large new postoffice on land that was about to become a national park. Buck Parker, executive director of Earthjustice, explains what happened next.
Don Harris, one of Earthjustice's founders, tells the story of how it all started, in a lawsuit that opened up the legal system to environmental organizations and sparked the creation of the organization that would become Earthjustice.
