The Center for Biological Diversity and Western Environmental Law Center sent a sixty-day notice of their intent to sue the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS), the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and Washington’s Department of Ecology for failure to protect multiple populations of chinook and coho salmon, Southern Resident killer whales, steelhead trout, and bull trout from the effects of cyanide in Washington waters. The notice letter, sent pursuant to the citizen suit provision in the federal Endangered Species Act, alleges that the EPA has violated its duty to ensure, in consultation with FWS and NMFS, that its approval of Washington’s water quality criteria for cyanide does not jeopardize federally protected species and their designated critical habitats.
[To accompany Agency Update "Environmental Organizations Threaten to Sue State and Federal Agencies Over Cyanide Impacts on Protected Species" from Brooks Animal Law Digest Issue No. 118.]