Re: [CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS: FBI North Chicago (IL) range

["Steven B. Pollack" <Steve@EcoEsq.com>]

Judge Guzman used the wrong stardard for standing. By using the water
quality levels as the standard he essentially raised standing
requirements higher than what is necessary to prove violation of the
Clean Water Act. All we needed to prove under the CWA is the discharge
of pollutants into navigable waters without a permit. There is no
requirement that the discharge cause the water quality to exceed any
specific benchmark as the judge required. The purpose of the CWA is to
stop the discharges. This ruling means that discharges which degrade the
water but not enough to make you ill, are now legal.

It amounts to Judicial interference with the constitutional right of
Congress to have laws executed the way they are written and invalidates
the portion of the citizen suit provision allowing any person to sue
anyone for any violation. Now citizen suits can only be brought for
violations that reach a particularly high threshold of personal injury.
That is not what Congress wrote.

Congress enacted the federal facilities provisions to ensure the
Executive comply in the same manner as private facilities.  Usually the
Executive has prosecutorial discretion and cannot be second guessed when
it chooses not to enforce the laws enacted by Congress. Congress
overrode this discretion in the environmental laws to ensure compliance
by allowing citizens to sue when the Executive won't, or in this case
when the Executive is the violator.  So if Congress allows the citizen
to sue the Executive for any violation, and a violation of the CWA is
simply the discharge of pollutants into navigable waters without a
permit, what business does the Judiciary have in raising the standing
bar higher than Congress says is enough for citizen enforcement? 

The judiciary is stepping all over Congress, a co-equal branch of
government.  This ruling upsets a system of checks and balances duly
enacted by Congress.  In my view, there is a judicial hostility to
citizen suits.  While giving strict deference to Congressional intent to
bar citizen suits challenging cleanups under CERCLA's 113(h) bar, the
Judiciary ignores Congressional intent to allow citizen suits for
ongoing violations.  It seems the Judiciary only likes Congressional
intent when it negatively affects citizen suits.

Blue Eco Legal Council believes Congress needs to re-authorize the major
environmental laws to delegate enforcement authority at federal
facilities directly to US EPA.

For more on this issue, visit our site at 
http://www.fireclaimlaw.com/blueeco.html 

Steven B. Pollack, Attorney
Executive Director, Blue Eco Legal Council
3390 Commercial Ave.
Northbrook, IL 60062
847-436-9566
www.ecoesq.com
www.landfill7.com
www.fireclaimlaw.com


> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS: FBI North Chicago (IL) range
> From: Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>
> Date: Sun, September 21, 2008 2:45 am
> To: Military Environmental Forum <military@lists.cpeo.org>
> Environmental group loses FBI firing-range suit
> By FRANK ABDERHOLDEN
> Lake County News-Sun (IL)
> September 20, 2008
> The environmental group that was trying to close the FBI shooting range 
> in North Chicago failed to make its case.
> U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman ruled this week that Blue Eco Legal 
> Council failed to prove sufficient harm for them to have standing in 
> court. The suit was filed in January.
> Blue Eco of Northbrook filed suit in January, alleging that the FBI was 
> discharging lead into Lake Michigan. Blue Eco sought an award of $20 
> million that was to be split between Alliance for the Great Lakes and 
> the Natural Resource Defense Council.
> "We're proud that everything we set out to prove, we proved," said 
> Steven Pollack, executive director of Blue Eco. The judge basically said 
> "there wasn't enough pollution."
> ...
> For the entire article, see
> http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/news/1174272,5_1_WA20_GUNRANGE_S1.article
> -- 
> Lenny Siegel
> Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
> a project of the Pacific Studies Center
> 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
> Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
> Fax: 650/961-8918
> <lsiegel@cpeo.org>
> http://www.cpeo.org
> _______________________________________________
> Military mailing list
> Military@lists.cpeo.org
> http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/military-cpeo.org

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