Our volunteer lawyers are providing their services to a diverse group of citizens associations and environmental organizations on a wide variety of matters. They include:
- Efforts to strengthen Maryland’s permit system for concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Agricultural practices in the Chesapeake watershed are among the greatest contributors to the nutrient loads that are suffocating the Bay. In January, 2009, Maryland promulgated a "general permit" for CAFOs (in particular poultry operations on the Eastern Shore) under its delegated authority in accordance with the Clean Water Act. Although the new permit is better than what went before, we believe it fails to comply with the requirements of the Clean Water Act in several respects. Our volunteer lawyers are representing two Eastern Shore waterkeeper organizations and two individuals who reside on the Eastern Shore in an administrative proceeding to strengthen the Maryland CAFO permit.
- Representation of the Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper in a proceeding against the current owners of the Sparrows Point steel plant in Baltimore for their continued failure to clean up a site that is contributing heavily to polluting the Bay, notwithstanding a thirteen-year-old consent decree requiring them to do so.
- Representation of the Potomac Riverkeeper and several individuals in a suit to force a contractor on a massive highway project in Northern Virginia to correct major violations of its construction storm water permit under the Clean Water Act.
- Assisting the Scenic Rivers Land Trust in a suit to enforce a conservation easement on a property on the Severn River against someone who wants to build a house on the property in violation of the easement.
- Successful opposition to the construction of a large assisted living facility, on Deep Creek, off the Magothy River. After a lengthy hearing, in which one of our volunteers played a leading role, the Hearing Examiner ruled that the project would violate Maryland’s Critical Area Law. The developer has abandoned the proposed project and now plans to build a much smaller, less impactful project on the site.
- Assisting with efforts to clean up an unlawfully-operated campground on the shores of the Sassafras River.
- A challenge to a proposed development that would build 17 houses on the shores of Deep Cove, a beautiful, undeveloped area near Shadyside, Maryland.
- Comments on a draft Clean Water Act permit that is part of the settlement of a lawsuit against a specialty chemicals plant on the Chester River.
We will post more information about our activities as they evolve. Come back and visit us soon.