Chronology of Success 2020

‘Winning for the West’

January 2020

  • Stibnite Mine CWA Violations: Idaho federal district judge Winmill denied Midas Gold Corp.’s motions to dismiss or stay our Clean Water Act case for the Nez Perce Tribe. The case seeks to hold the Canadian mining promoter responsible for unlawfully discharging pollutants from eight different “point sources” at the Stibnite Mine site, on the East Fork of the South Fork Salmon River, outside Yellow Pine, Idaho. The river is key habitat for imperiled salmon and steelhead, within the Tribe’s ancestral fishing grounds. Midas Gold seeks to avoid CWA liability by claiming it will eventually clean up mining pollution after conducting new extensive gold mining at the Stibnite site, ignoring the long-term degradation it will cause.

February 2020

  • Victory Against Trump’s “Energy Dominance” Agenda!: An Idaho federal judge ruled that Trump’s BLM violated the law in adopting policy changes to exclude the public and decrease environmental reviews of onshore oil and gas leasing, and set aside over 670 oil and gas leases that BLM approved in 2018 across 1 million acres of sage-grouse habitats in Wyoming, Montana and Nevada. This victory alone reversed one-quarter of the oil and gas leases issued by BLM under Trump’s “energy dominance” agenda for public lands management.
  • Fracking Leases Blocked in Arizona: A settlement agreement in our federal litigation suspended BLM oil and gas leases on 4,200 acres of public land in Arizona’s Little Colorado River valley, until federal agencies complete reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, and National Historical Preservation Act.
  • Colorado Sage-Grouse Stop Oil and Gas Leases: In response to our legal challenges, Colorado BLM withdrew 8,700 acres of sage-grouse habitat from planned oil and gas leasing. Our October 2019 injunction against the Trump Administration’s rollback of sage-grouse plans has now forced BLM to withdraw 392,670 acres of sage-grouse habitats across the West.
  • Devil’s Corral Protected: Responding to our opposition, the Idaho Department of Water Resources dismissed an attempt by a developer to resurrect a 1980 water right application to de-water Devil’s Corral, a natural spring tributary to the Snake River above Shoshone Falls.

March 2020

  • Settlement Restricts Idaho Wolf Killing, Bans Use of M-44 Cyanide Bombs: Building on two recent court victories challenging USDA Wildlife Services’ predator killing programs in Idaho, we reached a court-approved settlement agreement prohibiting the federal agency from conducting wolf killing in Idaho wilderness areas and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, and banning use of M-44 cyanide bombs in Idaho, for several years while it conducts a full environmental review.

May 2020

  • EPA Releases Temperature TMDL for Columbia/Snake Rivers: The Environmental Protection Agency finally released its plan under the Clean Water Act to address high water temperatures in the Columbia and lower Snake Rivers that harm salmon and steelhead, in response to our recent court rulings in federal district and appellate courts.
  • Kilgore Mine Approval Revoked: The Idaho federal court reversed Forest Service approval of the Kilgore Mine gold exploration project in the Centennial Mountains between Idaho and Montana, based on legal violations the court found in its 2019 summary judgment decision.

August 2020

Wild Sockeye Salmon
  • Major Win for Willamette Salmon and Steelhead: The U.S. District in Oregon issued a sweeping ruling in our favor, holding that the Army Corps of Engineers is violating several requirements of the Endangered Species Act in failing to modify its management of numerous dams and reservoirs in the Upper Willamette River basin, which imperil Willamette runs of salmon and steelhead. The litigation will now move into the remedies phase.

September 2020

  • Air Force Violated NEPA in Boise Urban Training Project: Magistrate Judge Candy Dale ruled in favor our clients—several Boise residents and Great Old Broads for Wilderness—finding that the Air Force failed to adequate address potential noise and other impacts from its proposed urban warfare training exercises in Boise and other southern Idaho cities, ordering the Air Force to prepare a full EIS.

November 2020

  • Forest Service FOIA Settlement: Staff Attorney Lizzy Potter reached a settlement agreement requiring the Forest Service to provide documents about livestock grazing on National Forests in Idaho and Oregon requested under the Freedom of Information Act, which regional offices had unreasonably obstructed.