CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY v. U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, et al.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied a motion to dismiss filed by several federal agencies in a lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) failure to “perform statutorily required consultations with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service” pursuant to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) prior to the EPA’s approval of Washington state limits on aquatic cyanide pollution. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell concluded that the EPA has an “ongoing obligation” to ensure those standards do not imperil endangered species and that the plaintiff had pleaded “sufficient facts to assert that defendants violated [consultation regulations under the ESA].”
[To accompany Case Law Update "Federal Court Denies Federal Agencies’ Motion to Dismiss ESA Case Relating to EPA Approval Process for Limits on Aquatic Cyanide Pollution in Washington State" from Brooks Animal Law Digest Issue No. 202]